The Legal Status of the Financial Police
The Financial Police is a special law-enforcement body within the system of the Ministry of Finance of Georgia, holding the status of a state subordinated institution. In accordance with Georgian legislation it combats crime in the financial-economic sphere, conducts the preliminary investigation of cases assigned to its competence by the criminal procedure legislation, and performs other functions established by legislation. This means that the competence of the Financial Police is deliberately confined to the financial-economic sphere, and every action it takes must remain within the boundaries defined by law — it is precisely these boundaries that serve as the yardstick of the lawfulness of its conduct.
Basic Principles of Activity and Restrictions on Officers
The activity of the Financial Police is founded on the principles of legality, protection of the person's honor and dignity, social justice, humanism and publicity, and the unity of the police system and its centralized management. An officer is obliged to respect and protect the rights and fundamental freedoms of the person irrespective of citizenship, social or property status, racial or national origin, sex, age, education, language, religion, political or other views. This requirement is not a mere declaration — it connects directly to the lawful use of coercive means, since force applied for a discriminatory motive violates one or another of these principles.
An officer is prohibited from creating or participating in a political association of citizens; from disclosing information attributed to a personal, commercial, professional or state secret, as well as other legally protected information, except in cases provided for by law; from organizing or conducting an assembly or demonstration, and from participating in one; and from holding secondary paid employment — except scientific, pedagogical or creative activity — holding a position in another state treasury institution, performing other paid work, or holding a position in the body or institution of another country.
Powers
Within its competence the Financial Police is entitled to carry out operational-search activities, to detect and prevent crime in the financial-economic sphere, to conduct preliminary investigation, and to use physical coercion within the limits and by the procedure established by law. It may open an investigation into a crime in the financial-economic sphere. It is entitled to conduct all investigative and procedural actions provided for by the Criminal Procedure Code and to request a judge's warrant in the cases and by the procedure established by legislation.
- where necessary, to decide on conducting an audit or an inventory, to request a documentary inspection and the submission of documentation needed for the investigation;
- to obtain, process and analyze information related to the service's activities and to carry out strategic planning;
- for the performance of official duty, to request and receive from tax and customs bodies identified information about an individual taxpayer;
- in the manner established by legislation, to draw up protocols on administrative offences, to hear and decide administrative offence cases and to impose an administrative penalty on the offender;
- where sufficient data on a crime or other offence exist, to stop and inspect vehicles and to check a citizen's identity documents;
- to conduct a financial expert examination at the stage of preliminary investigation, and to carry out other activities defined by legislation.
Coercive Means — General Rules and the Duty to Warn
While performing official duty, an officer, within the granted right, may use physical force, special means, service-regular and military-combat weapons, by the procedure established by law. The officer is obliged to warn the person in advance of the use of these means and to give sufficient time to comply with the lawful demand — except where delay may endanger the life or health of a citizen and of the officer, cause another grave consequence, or where giving a warning is impossible in the situation. The type of special means and the intensity of physical force are determined taking into account the concrete situation, the character of the offence and individual peculiarities — this is the proportionality requirement embedded in the legislation.
Physical Force and Special Means
Physical force — including special combat techniques — is used within the limits and by the procedure established by law, to prevent a crime or another offence or to detain the offender or violator, if the non-use of methods of violence cannot secure the performance of the duties imposed by law. The law names the special means separately, and each has its own grounds for use:
- handcuffs and other means of restraint — against a person committing a crime or a socially dangerous act who resists or may resist the officer, attempts to escape, or against a person subjected to coercive measures provided for by the criminal procedure legislation;
- rubber baton — to repel an attack on an employee of the Ministry of Finance, and when detaining a person committing a crime if that person deliberately fails to comply with the lawful demand of the officer;
- means of forced stopping of transport — to stop a vehicle whose driver has failed to comply with the demand to stop movement;
- special dye — to expose a person committing an unlawful act;
- service dog — to carry out operational-search measures;
- electroshock device — to repel an attack on an employee of the Ministry of Finance and to prevent that criminal act, where no other, milder means of removing the danger exists.
After use, the officer has strict duties: to render first medical aid to a person injured as a result of physical force or special means, to call a doctor if needed, and to immediately report any wounding or injury to the immediate superior and to the prosecutor. It is prohibited to use physical force or special means against persons with apparent signs of pregnancy, minority, disability or old age — except where they carry out an armed or group attack or armed resistance against the officer endangering the life and health of citizens and officers, and where repelling such attack by other means and methods is impossible.
Use of Firearms
An officer has the right to store, carry and use service-regular and other types of weapons permitted by the relevant law; the use of a firearm is deemed to be a shot or its other use. A firearm may be used as necessary defense or as an extreme measure: to protect a citizen or oneself from a danger posing a real threat to life or health; to prevent the seizure of a firearm; to give an alarm signal or to call backup; to damage a vehicle for the purpose of forced stopping if the driver fails to comply with repeated demands to stop; and in other cases permitted by legislation.
The use of a firearm must be preceded by a verbal warning; where necessary, a warning shot may be fired. A firearm is used without warning during an armed sudden attack using combat equipment or any type of transport or mechanical means; when a detained person escapes using transport or from a vehicle; during the detention of an offender offering armed resistance; when the detained person has limited visibility and flees in a wooded area; and in other cases defined by legislation. The officer must employ the weapon only to the extent genuinely required to remove the danger.
On What Grounds the Lawfulness of an Action Can Be Challenged
When challenging a coercive action of the Financial Police, it is precisely the requirements listed above that become the yardstick of lawfulness. Open to dispute is a breach of the duty to warn — if the officer did not warn you in advance and did not give you sufficient time to comply, where the delay threatened neither life nor health nor any other grave consequence; a breach of proportionality — if the type of means or the intensity of coercion did not correspond to the concrete situation, the character of the offence and your individual peculiarities; and a breach of the prohibitions — if force was used despite apparent signs of pregnancy, minority, disability or old age, or if a firearm was used in a place where other persons could be harmed, or in fire-hazardous or explosion-hazardous places.
The officer's subsequent conduct is equally disputable: if first medical aid was not rendered to the injured person, a doctor was not called, or the wounding or injury was not reported in due time to the immediate superior and the prosecutor — that is an independent violation, and establishing it plays a significant role in a challenge. The concrete procedure for challenging — to whom, within what time limit and in what form to apply — is not established by these norms and is determined by the general rules of Georgian legislation; therefore, before challenging, follow the correct administrative or judicial route and preserve evidence confirming the situation at the time of the events.