Police head abroad to get global vision

By Wang Jingqiong (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-10 08:23

Police officers from across the country will have a chance to gain a global perspective by studying abroad as the Ministry of Public Security plans to launch an international training program later this year, a senior official has said.

Police officers practice kungfu in Guiyang, Guizhou province. [File photo]

During the three-year training program, the ministry will send one or two groups of police officers abroad every year, Li Chunsheng, director of the ministry's human resources bureau, said in an interview with CCTV.

The move is "to train a group of police who can integrate with the international world", he said.

Zhao Yu, a professor from Chinese People's Public Security University, said the move can broaden police's vision.

"With a better understanding of how foreign systems work, it will be easier for Chinese police officers to cooperate with police from other countries," he said.

Zhao said this is not the first time China has selected officials for training abroad, as the Beijing public security bureau sent police officers to countries including the United States and Australia for training before last year's Olympic Games.

The new program for officers follows on the heels of the ministry's first training program for all the country's 3,000 county-level public security directors, which ended on May 30.

Zhao said the goal was to pass on "the newest ideas of law enforcement".

"It used to be a slow and difficult process for county-level police to get a clear idea of the ministry, as it takes time to pass information from the ministry to provincial departments, then to city bureaus, and finally to county-level bureaus. This training program provided an open and direct platform for communication," he said.

Li said county- and lower-level police officers account for 85 percent of police in the country.

"They play a key role in law enforcement and securing political stability, especially at a time when the economy is in crisis and maintaining order is very complicated," he said.

Their training started in February with six batches of directors taking turns going to Beijing for 10-day courses, which emphasized improving police awareness of rationality, civility and standardization of law enforcement, and the capability to work harmoniously with the public.

The directors were also trained on working with the media. Li denied that would lead to less candidness from the police, saying cooperation was possible between police and the media.

"We are both battlegrounds for safeguarding fairness and justice, so I don't think it would be difficult for the two of us to have a sincere and trustful relationship," he said.

Zhao Nianfu, head of Ninghe district police bureau in Tianjin, said that the most impressive part of the training was that he got a chance to communicate directly with the ministers.

"It never happened before. I only saw them on TV. This time I could ask them questions face-to-face, and clearly understand what they want us to do," he said.