Assaulting police in Zhejiang Province come at a higher price as the local Public Security Bureau works to protect the rights of officers, officials said.

A special committee will be established in every city and county in the province to protect the rights of the police, a bureau official said at a press conference yesterday.

Training focused on enhancing officer's knowledge of law and anti-assault skills will also be launched, said Zhang.

"The recent frequent cases of assaults on police have become a severe menace to the police force," said Zhang Jinghua, spokesman for the bureau.

Official statistics show that there were 32 cases of police officers being assaulted between March 10 and March 20, an average of three cases per day in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang Province.

Zhang attributed the growing trend to several factors, including an increase in crime and lack of concrete regulations to protect officer's rights as well as rude behavior among a minority of officers, which intensify altercations.

Some people think only killing and arson are against the law while beating and abusing police officers means nothing to them, Zhang noted.

"When the police are on duty, especially the traffic police, some people believe the police officer is finding fault with them. The agitated mood easily leads to assaults," said Zhang.

More and more assault cases involve wrestling and abuse, which are difficult to categorize by law, Zhang added.

Besides the growth in assault cases, instances of slander have also increased recently.

Since the public security organs are more and more open to the supervision of the public, people can complain their dissatisfaction of the police to related departments.

However, officials said, a small number of people will take "supervision" as an excuse to calumniate police officers.

Statistics from the Zhejiang Provincial Public Security Bureau indicate that in 1,256 complaints from the public last year, 825 - or 65.6 per cent - did not match the true facts of the incident.

(Xinhua News Agency April 20, 2004)