MOSCOW. August 2 (Interfax) - Proficiency reassessments as part of the current overhaul of Russia's police force have resulted in 32,000 vacancies, Deputy Interior Minister Sergei Gerasimov said on Tuesday.
Gerasimov told reporters 875,300 police had passed reassessments and that the force's total numbers had been set at 907,600 people with effect from January 1, 2012.
"It hasn't been our task in these off-schedule assessments to fill all of the vacancies. We had the task of selection based on professional, moral and psychological characteristics and other criteria," he said.
As of January 1, 2010, the country's police force numbered 1.13 million, Gerasimov said.
"In the course of preliminary work, a large number of personnel decided themselves that they would not continue to serve in the [police force]," he said. Most of them were officers who "realized they wouldn't pass the reassessments," he said.