Volunteer Patrols Join Police on Russian Streets : Crime: Neighborhood enforcers say they leave officers free to concentrate on serious offenses. But some critics fear the force may harass citizens.

It was a balmy spring evening on the outskirts of Moscow, and seven men roamed the streets looking for signs of trouble.

Turning a corner onto the neighborhood’s main drag, Shelkovskoye Shosse, they spotted their first potential target: a man selling oranges out of a crate.

“Documents! Show us your documents!” one of the men demanded, flashing his credentials and pointing out his armband, colored red, white and blue like the Russian flag. “We’re members of the neighborhood patrol.”

The peddler, surrounded and confused, grudgingly produced his passport and a few stamped forms. He was legal.

The drill continued down the boulevard, with passersby staring at the group of enforcers, ranging in age from 25 to 65 and wearing crisp blue uniforms, as they checked out anyone who looked suspicious--from men sipping beer to old women selling flowers.

On this night, the block watchers found no hooligans to detain, no drunks to lock up, not even a fare beater to fine. But the recruits say their families and neighbors feel safer with the volunteer patrol members--or druzhinniki --at work.

“We live in this neighborhood and work to keep our people safe,” said volunteer Alexei Yegorov, an engineer by day. “People in the stores know us, talk to us, greet us. I think they’re glad we are here.”

Recognizing that police cannot cope with Moscow’s post-Communist crime wave, Mayor Yuri M. Luzhkov is turning to the druzhinniki . The 5,000 unpaid volunteers patrol streets in their neighborhoods, looking for petty offenders so the police can concentrate on violent and organized crime.

Druzhinniki detain about 1,500 people per month, holding them until the police arrive. They raid city marketplaces, evict squatters, help keep order at demonstrations.

The force resembles America’s Guardian Angels, the vigilantes who patrol 40 U.S. cities, including Los Angeles. The Guardian Angels plan a trip to Moscow in late July to explore the possibility of opening a branch in Russia, according to founder Curtis Sliwa.

The idea of civilian patrols is not new here. People’s Volunteer Brigades operated all over the Soviet Union for 30 years before being abandoned as the country fell apart in 1991. Students, factory workers and bureaucrats routinely pitched in as druzhinniki --which comes from the Russian word for friend --to patrol their neighborhoods.

Druzhinniki were reincarnated in Moscow in March, 1993. This spring, Luzhkov gave them uniforms, bulletproof vests and nightsticks and forged them into a citywide organization answerable to him. They are not authorized to carry guns; they call upon the police when firepower is needed.

The force is open to any Moscow resident older than 18 without a criminal record who completes a 10-hour training course and a three-month probationary period.

Although the druzhinniki seem innocuous, they have been criticized by the Moscow media. The government newspaper Rossiskaya Gazeta compared the volunteers to “Nazi storm troopers” and warned that they could be used to strengthen Luzhkov’s already vast powers.

The English-language Moscow Times predicted that the force would attract “gangs of thugs” who would use their position to extort bribes from innocent people, committing crime rather than preventing it. “The new volunteer army is more likely to harass than defend the residents of Moscow,” the paper said in an editorial.

Anatoly Tsyganov, director of the brigades, admitted that a small number of volunteers had been thrown off the force for abuse of power, but insisted that most of the misfits are identified during their three-month trial.

“I can’t say we have the ideal people--they’re just normal folks,” he said. “If out of 100 people, 99 help Moscow keep peace and order and one is a bad apple, it’s still better for the city on the whole.”