Neighbors to keep a keen eye thanks to police tip-off app
About 270,000 residents in Shanghai are members of about 6,000 WeChat groups that offer tips to police about possible crimes and offenses, police said on Wednesday.
The groups, established on a WeChat mini program developed by the police, were introduced at the beginning of last year and used by community police officers around the city.
Officers said the mini program, “WeChat Police Task Room,” has made their work more efficient and helped them better connect with communities.
Zhu Yonghua, a community police officer of Shenxiang Police Station in Qingpu District, is one of them.
Like many of his colleagues, Zhu has long been interacting with the residents he serves on WeChat, but the new mini program represents a more focused effort to mobilize resident in building a safe community together.
“I added people who are community officials, property management managers and the residents who are especially proactive in community building to my Police Task Room,” he said.
In the groups, residents are informed by the police of the latest crime trends and educated in looking for possible clues of crimes and offenses.
In mid-November last year, Zhu got a tip-off that led to a case being solved.
Zhu was told in the group by an informer that someone was transporting buckets of unknown liquids to a hot-pot restaurant.
“I suspected that it was methanol which some restaurants purchase to fuel hot-pots, but it’s illegal to sell it without a permit because it’s a dangerous chemical,” he said.
From a picture uploaded by the informer, Zhu spotted the plate of the truck that transported the liquids, and found that its driver had been punished for conducting an illegal methanol business before.
In Jing’an District, Zhou Yaping, a community police officer of Jiangning Road Police Station, solved a gambling case with her colleagues thanks to an observant informer.
Last year, Zhou received information that there was a strange surveillance camera inside a residential building.
Zhou found that the building was busy with people who don’t live there and found out that there was actually a gambling den inside, and the surveillance camera was likely installed there to monitor any approaching law enforcement officers.
The gambling den was soon busted.
“It’s more convenient for residents to report a clue through the mini program when they can’t decide whether they should call police on 110, and they can file a report 24/7 directly to me,” she said.
In Jiading District, Gu Xiao, a community police officer of Fengbang Police Station, said a cleaning lady employed by a property management firm at a residential complex became a hero last August.
“I told the residents to report to me when they discover any plastic bottles with two straws because such bottles are likely to be related to drugs,” he said.
On an August morning, the cleaning lady discovered a bottle with a strange hole in it and reported the matter to Gu, which led to the discovery of a drug user.
Shen Lin, a community police officer of Ouyang Road Police Station in Hongkou District, says he once received a report that an apartment was being parted into eight rooms, which was probably related to group leasing. Shen says the clue was important because it would take two to three months to remove the illegal tenants once they moved in.
Shen receives a report from a property management firm worker that two suspicious people entered a residential complex.
So far, the residents reported about 112,000 clues to the police, among which 46,000 spurred police investigation, while the rest were handed over to community officials, community workers and property management firms.
One in three residents who have been invited by community police officers to join the groups is under 35 years old, police said.
Next up, police said they will push for the sharing of good practices in utilizing the mini program among all community police officers and enhance the effort to educate the residents on spotting and reporting clues of crimes and offenses.
