Police open to address public grievances
By Jiang Zhuqing (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-08-19 05:47
After years of continuous petitions, Yang Huiqing, a woman from Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, finally saw the suspected murderer of her son 16 years ago arrested last week.
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Police Chief of Yichang, Central China's Hubei Province, talks with a petitioner on August 19, 2005. [newsphoto] |
The development was all thanks to a nationwide campaign launched on May 18, which requires local police chiefs to meet face-to-face those with complaints against the police.
Yang's case drew police attention after she petitioned Wen Qiang, executive director of the city's public security bureau on July 23, Chongqing Morning News reported.
By Tuesday this week, public security organs across the nation had received 185,000 complaints, and had solved 163,000 of them, according to Ministry of Public Security spokesman Wu Heping. Moreover, 16,000 criminal cases were discovered through the petitions, and 21,000 suspects arrested.
The complaints lodged centred on long-pending cases, redress of previous wrongs, and rude behaviour by police.
According to China's law, citizens have the right to raise their complaints or suggestions to relevant governmental organizations, including the police.
On May 1, a revised regulation on letters and visits came into effect. Based on the revision, the Ministry of Public Security yesterday promulgated its own rules on the handling of people's letters and visits by police, which became effective the same day.
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