On the concept of “special equipment” of law-enforcement agencies

The authors discuss the controversial issues of the definition of the terms "special equipment" and "special technical means". Based on the analysis of definitions contained in special, scientific and educational literature, the authors conclude that there are different approaches to understanding "special equipment'. There is also a mixing of these concepts, which leads to certain difficulties in classifying technical means which are adopted by law-enforcement agencies, and generates controversial issues of law enforcement practice related to the use of certain groups of household appliances by citizens. The authors propose to solve these difficulties by considering "special equipment' as a system that includes a set of any technical means and tactical techniques for their use in the activities of law-enforcement agencies. In this system, in accordance with certain criteria, it is proposed to separately allocate a group of technical means referred to as "special technical means of law-enforcement agencies".