The purpose of the article is to determine the features of the search for signs of criminal offenses in the sphere of subsoil exploitation and protection. The subject of the study is the search activities of operational units in this area. The research methodology includes the use of general scientific and special methods of scientific cognition: dialectical, historical-legal, formal-logical, system-structural, generalization, comparative-legal. Research results. The elements of search activity

more »

... of criminal offenses in the area of subsoil exploitation and protection are established. Practical meaning. The most likely places of search and objects containing information on wrongfulness of the acts in the indicated sphere are identified. Value / originality. It is proved that process of detecting criminal offenses and those who prepare or commit them is based on the knowledge of the event of criminal offense by subtraction from the environment the changes that have arisen in connection with its preparation or commission of the traces left on the environmental elements, such as objects and documents.