National police training scheme reaps rewards

The political and combat capability training public security forces that have undergone over the past few years have enhanced policing skills and helped raise the public sense of security in the country, Li Guozhong, spokesperson for the Ministry of Public Security said on Wednesday.

The three-year training program was launched in 2019 with the aim of comprehensively improving the professional skills of all police officers, and included training in anti-terrorism measures, intelligence research, unarmed defense and control, and first aid.

Since training began, the public sense of security has risen every year, reaching a high of 98.4 percent in 2020, Li said at a news briefing.

At the same time, the total number of criminal cases filed nationwide has dropped by 4.1 percent and 1.8 percent in the years since 2019, with decreases in the eight major types of criminal cases - intentional homicide, intentional injury, rape, robbery, drug trafficking, arson, explosion, dropping dangerous substances - falling by 10.3 percent and 8.7 percent over the past two years, respectively. The clearance rate of cases also increased by 5.6 percent and 1.9 percent in the same period, he said.

In the last two years, public security bureaus at all levels across the country have held more than 21,500 courses, and trained over 1,035,000 police officers, he added.