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2,600 arrested in crackdown
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Song Yingwen
THE first month of a 90-day anti-crime campaign in Shenzhen has brought dramatic results, officials say, touting the arrest of more than 2,600 suspects and a steep drop in the crime rate.
The Shenzhen Municipal Public Security Bureau said over 1,700 criminal cases were solved and 336 gangs were broken up in the first month of the campaign, which started from March 16.
During the operations that led to the arrest of 2,649 suspects, large quantities of illegal goods worth some 54 million yuan (US$6.6 million), were seized by police, according to the bureau.
The booty included 62 guns, 272 bullets and 1,232 detonators, the bureau said.
The crackdown, targeting mainly at gang crimes, violent crime including bombings and murders, and other crimes such as robbery and human trafficking, are part of a wider nationwide campaign launched by the Central Government in early April after a series of major crimes, including the explosions that rocked North China's city of Shijiazhuang in March, shone a glaring light on the decline of social order.
President Jiang Zemin called for intensified efforts to improve public security during a high-profile meeting on crime crackdown earlier in Beijing.
According to Zhang Yongqiang, Shenzhen's police chief, the ongoing crackdown is the city's largest-ever war on crime. “Our target is to make a noticeable improvement in public security in the 90-day crackdown. We will then strive for better results in a long-term effort," Zhang said.
To achieve this goal, police have been working overtime for weeks to smash criminal gangs. Their measures include setting up effective systems designed to detect and prevent crimes, and perfecting the existing mechanism to handle criminal cases properly.
“When we say setting up a crime detecting and preventing system, we mean to have all citizens involved to form a city-wide network that will leave no way out for criminals," Zhang explained.
Individuals and grass-roots security groups are encouraged to report crimes immediately and help prevent criminal activity, he said.
According to the bureau, they have observed an obvious drop in crimes since the launch of the campaign. Reports of robberies have decreased from the previous 65 cases per day to the current 12 to 16 per day.
“The operation will last for 90 days, but our efforts in cracking down crimes will continue," Zhang assured.
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