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Beijing demands better policing: Blue eyes on China
By Dwight Daniels (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-05-09 10:24

A few Beijing police officers and their leaders are, quite literally, sweating it out.

Fifty police stations have been "blacklisted" by the Municipal Bureau of Public Security; they have been put on notice to improve things.

In other words, the leaders at those stations must get a handle on high crime rates in their areas of responsibility - the geographic locales they are supposed to patrol and control - or else.

This new system of accountability came into place to more effectively supervise the stations at the beginning of last month, and it's long overdue.

Why should police, on the public payroll, be any less responsible or accountable than any other public servants?

They've got a job to do, and they should do it. The public deserves the protection it is paying for.

And the reputation of the city, with the Olympic Games not too far in the future, is on the line.

The Chaoyang and Haidian districts have the greatest number of blacklisted stations. Inside sources have told local media that a chief reason for the high crime rate is that police officers are not being efficiently deployed.

Statistics from the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Public Security showed that burglaries and motor vehicle theft cases experienced a 20 per cent increase in the first quarter of the year - exactly the wrong direction the public should expect.

An investigation conducted by the bureau found that of 286 burglaries in March, 55 per cent happened in areas where no police officers were stationed, according to the Beijing News.

That is a problem with resources and manpower.

Leaders at the district stations have to face facts.

They must get their officers out of the stations and onto the streets where they can do what they can to stop crimes before they happen. Waiting around for reports just won't work.

Police work is not rocket science. It is among the toughest work on Earth, but those who do it should want to do it and if they don't they should leave the profession.

It requires energetic officers who are willing to leave the safety of the station and go into the hutong where they can get to know residents first-hand, and establish a rapport with children - the most likely citizens to get in trouble - so youths will respect the officers and the law.

It also takes some time and muscle to make certain that gangsters know that common crimes like graft, gambling and protection pay-offs are not going to be tolerated.

Such activity just leads to other more serious consequences, like the murders that occurred in the Chaoyang District in the not so distant past.

At the moment, officials say, the crime rate in areas covered by the Dongsheng and Qinghe police stations in the Haidian District are the highest in the city's 400 police stations. The Dongsheng police station also reported the top burglary rate.

The Pingfang police station in Chaoyang District suffers from the greatest number of robbery cases, while the Shibalidian police station reports the most car thefts.

All of these situations are worrying. And now the security bureau leaders have spoken, telling stations to improve before the end of June. Otherwise, the stations will be "warned and criticized."

What precisely that means, we're not sure. But if it means changes are to be made in police leadership for the sake of accountability and the safety of Beijing citizens and visitors, then perhaps it is not a bad idea.



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