The Russian Interior Ministry's internal affairs division plans to check police officers on lie detectors, the division head told a Russian government newspaper.
"When discussing a draft law on the use of polygraphs, we propose legally fixing the necessity to hold psycho-physiological tests for certain categories of police officers," police Lt.-Gen. Yury Draguntsov told Rossiiskaya Gazeta to be published on Thursday.
Draguntsov also said his division received some 50,000 complaints regarding law enforcement personnel in 2009, of which "approximately one half were confirmed." He said the number was 50% higher than in previous years.
He said over 4,000 police officers were brought to criminal account last year.
Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev vowed last August to eradicate police corruption, a widespread occurrence in Russia.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev pledged to fight corruption when he entered office in May 2008, highlighting the issue as one of the country's most serious problems.
A series of scandals involving police in 2009 culminated in a presidential decree ordering a major overhaul of the Interior Ministry, with personnel cuts of 20% over two years to be balanced by higher salaries for remaining staff.
Earlier this year, 19 traffic police officers were arrested on bribery charges in Russia's southern city of Astrakhan.
In another recent high-profile police crime case, police Major Denis Yevsyukov killed two people and injured seven in a Moscow supermarket in April last year.
MOSCOW, February 10 (RIA Novosti)
