Compliance with the principle of a reasonable period of criminal proceedings at the stage of initiation of a criminal case

The article is devoted to the actual problems of ensuring a reasonable period of the initial stage of criminal proceedings. Based on the system-structural analysis of the norms of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation regulating the procedure for initiating a criminal case, and normative legal acts of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, the Prosecutor General's Office of Russia and other departments, the author of the article concludes that some provisions of departmental regulations are inconsistent and their inconsistency with the criminal procedure law, which negatively affects the understanding by the law enforcement officer of the scope and timing of the audit according to the received message about the crime. The author substantiates the need for a legislative definition of the purpose of the stage of initiation of a criminal case to determine the content and boundaries of verification activities. As one of the measures to ensure a reasonable time for the initiation of a criminal case, it is proposed to establish the personal responsibility of both officials conducting an audit on a crime report and exercising procedural control over the activities of these persons.