Eight Shanghai residents organized a "DV camera crew" on May 21 and hope to use the means of exposure by photography to deter the frequent behavior of "rushing against red lights" in this city.

This group of eight includes a retired college teacher, university students and their ages range from 20 to 73. They plan to use DV cameras they pay for themselves to guard road crossings and take photos of pedestrians "jay-walking" or crossing the road "against a red light."

Photos of those caught in these acts will be shown periodically in a nationwide news channel in Shanghai. Group members vow that they will make appropriate technical adjustments to the faces of the perpetrators when their DVs are shown.

Prior to this, Shanghai has launched measures to permit the use of digital cameras to snap photos of traffic violations, thus inspiring these group members who are die-hard photographers. They hope to "use DV to catch a slice of life, exposing how some citizens disobey traffic rules and their uncivilized acts of crossing the road against red lights and at the same capturing shots of citizens who obey these rules."

Relevant management organizations in Shanghai revealed that they will, in the future, further encourage citizens to turn their "lenses" towards other bad sights such as illegally parked cars, people who dump garbage from high-rises and pets that annoy others. Shanghai's "citizen DV group" will also increase in numbers.

(China News Service May 24, 2006)