BISHKEK - One morning last year in
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Dilnoza awoke to find her
brand-new Toyota Corolla missing. She knew
immediately whom to call, and it wasn't her local
police precinct. Dilnoza sought the help of a
private security agency. And after six days of
searching, the firm's operatives tracked down and
recovered Dilnoza's car, which was found in a
village outside the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek. Asked
why she didn't go to the police, she provided a
practical answer.
"I paid the company, so
they had an incentive to find it. The police did
not," Dilnoza, 33, said.
Over the past
eight years, Kyrgyzstan has seen two presidents
chased from office amid violent street protests
and widespread
looting. As a result,
and thanks to widespread corruption, public trust
in the police has plummeted. It's not surprising,
then, that a rising number of individuals and
businesses are placing their faith in private
security agencies to protect property and
investigate crimes.
According to figures
confirmed by an Interior Ministry official, there
are now over 400 private agencies licensed to
carry weapons and provide security services in
Kyrgyzstan; roughly 30 are operational year-round.
Many, including the firm hired by Dilnoza,
who describes herself as "economically
comfortable", refuse to discuss their activities.
At the agency's insistence Dilnoza declined to
give her surname for this EurasiaNet.org story.
Of the active Bishkek-based companies, 13
are members of the Union of Security Agencies, a
forum that meets regularly with police officials
to discuss security-related issues. But while
officers from the Interior Ministry attend
meetings, says Vladimir Bessarabov, the CEO of
Barracuda, a private security and detective
agency, cooperation among private and public
security structures is rare. "Police see us as
their competition," Bessarabov told
EurasiaNet.org.
This is logical, adds
Bessarabov, whose firm has grown from 30 employees
when it was founded in 2004 to one with 200 staff
today, catering both to private individuals and
corporate concerns, including the local Coca-Cola
bottler. The police also provide guard-for-hire
services in exchange for cash, he says. But the
private forces are better-paid and more
professional.
Union of Security Agencies
members send employees to a course - run by Dordoi
Securities, one of the largest private firms with
about 800 employees - where employees undergo
psychological testing and training in first aid
and weapons handling.
Kyrgyzstan's police
academy, on the other hand, has a reputation for
being a den of graft. A reported brawl at the
academy's graduation party last summer also dented
its reputation for professionalism.
"We
try not to hire from the ranks of the Ministry of
Internal Affairs, because police here are full of
bad habits," Bessarabov continued. "The force is
corrupt, and their definition of service doesn't
correspond to the level of work I demand from my
guys."
Many Bishkek residents simply feel
that police officers are more interested in using
their positions for their personal benefit, rather
than promoting public safety.
Omurbek
Suvanaliyev, a career police officer who once
served briefly as interior minister under ousted
president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, admits that a
demoralized police force has lost credibility in
the eyes of the public.
"People understand
that the security structures exist to defend the
head of state and other high ranking politicians,"
he told EurasiaNet.org. "They [police] have lost
their civil functions."
Nevertheless,
Suvanaliyev argues, the rise of private security
and detective firms that don't answer to a
centralized chain of command carries risks. Such
security agencies can provide cover for criminal
activity, he asserted.
"We refused to
grant licenses to people we considered a threat to
public safety," says Suvanaliyev, who was twice
Bishkek's police chief and now styles himself an
opposition politician. "But later, the Bakiyev
family started giving security firm licenses away
to everybody, [including] their criminal
connections and drug runners."
Customers
like Dilnoza face a choice between potential
criminality in the private agencies and open
demands for kickbacks by police officers. "The
police are thieves, we see this every day," she
said.
As an ethnic minority Uighur without
connections in the force, she also feels police
are less likely to respond to any request for
help. "It is about what you can afford and who
will protect your interests better," she said.
Chris Rickleton is a
Bishkek-based journalist.
This story
was originally published on Eurasianet.org.
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