“Snitches have reached a new level”: in Yaroslavl they offered a fee for videos of spitting

Citizens will be able to make money from violators

Two months ago in Yaroslavl they began to fine citizens for spitting. The fine is 1,500 rubles. For a repeated violation – 3000. If at first employees of the administrative and technical supervision inspectorate organized raids and caught violators using street video cameras, now they have asked residents to maintain order themselves. Now any passerby can film someone spitting on his own phone, send the video to the relevant authorities and receive a reward.

They explained to us how the innovations would work.

In September, I was in Yaroslavl, where employees of the administrative and technical supervision inspectorate conducted a spitting raid to catch violators. The event turned out to be a failure. Looking out for spitters is a tedious and thankless task. It is much more productive to identify troublemakers using street video cameras. And now concerned citizens will be involved in the matter, who will themselves identify violators, film them on video and receive a fee.

The head of the administrative and technical supervision inspection, Oleg Kuznetsov, spoke about the prospects.

“Now we identify violators mainly through video cameras; we have practically abandoned raids. At the moment, about 30 cases have been initiated. About 7-8 fines were paid.

— Have the residents of Yaroslavl already joined in catching the spitters?

— The project has not yet been launched, it is in the final stage of development. But using social networks, we ourselves identify violators. There are several facts. Some time ago, a well-wisher spotted a man spitting in an elevator on social networks. I posted the video on city public pages. We saw, identified the spitting person and brought him to justice.

— Do you know that person’s reaction?

– We don’t know. He never came to us. We sent him a fine by mail at his place of registration and checked everything. If you don’t pay on time, the fine will double.

— If people themselves film those spitting and send them to you, is that essentially a denunciation?

– I don’t agree. These are different things. There is the concept of denunciation, and there is the concept of a reason to initiate a case for an administrative violation. Although we received appeals from citizens who referred to the statement of Dmitry Peskov, who said that denunciation is not good. But he was talking about something else.

— Will people receive rewards for identifying violators?

— Yes, 70 percent of the fine will go to them. But payment will be made after the violator pays the fine. In addition to spitting, we plan, with the help of citizens, to record other violations – to identify those who draw graffiti on buildings, post advertisements, relieve natural needs in public places – for this there is a general fine of 5,000 rubles.

On social networks, people supported the initiative of officials: “What, it’s not bad for someone who passed 70 percent,” “How much money was lost, because a lot of people were spitting,” “I was like water, when I took a phone with a good camera, no one will escape punishment.”

There were also opponents of the idea: “Informers have reached a new level,” “I’m warning you, if I see that they’re filming me, I’ll spit in my face.”