Police forces in China will be gradually expanded to ease the country's severe shortage of officers, a senior official said yesterday.

Typically developed countries have 35 police officers for every 10,000 citizens but the ratio in China is around 11 for the same number of citizens. This is less than developing countries like Brazil and India, according to figures from the Ministry of Public Security.

"The police shortage has existed for quite a long time and it has become increasingly pressing," Li Mingzhen, deputy director of the ministry's personnel bureau, said at a press conference yesterday.

He warned that the country could experience more crime and public disorder in the coming years as the experience of other countries has shown that crime rates rise when a country's per-capita gross domestic product (GDP) is between US$1,000 and US$3,000.

The shortage of officers created a heavy workload for those in place and can harm their health. Ministry spokesman Wu Heping said yesterday that in some police departments over 60 percent of officers suffer from chronic diseases.

Ministry investigators found that police in Beijing and Tianjin municipalities and Hebei Province work an average of 20 extra hours every week. Some criminal and grassroots-level police work 50 extra hours a week, the equivalent of 110 extra days a year, but with insufficient overtime pay.

Official statistics show that in 2005 of the 414 officers who died 154 of them, 37.2 percent, lost their lives from health-related issues. Cardio-vascular diseases, which claimed 115 lives, were the number one cause.

Faced with such circumstances, Li said China required to expand its police force in the coming years though an immediate sharp increase would be impossible.

According to the Regulation on the Administration of Public Security Organs, which took effect this month, police are considered to be "civil servants". This means any expansion of their ranks requires approval of a special administration under the State Council.

Insufficient funding may also hinder any recruitment especially in poor western regions, according to the ministry.

The regulation makes it clear that spending by police departments should be included in the budgets of local governments but the economic differences between the eastern and western parts of the country could result in an uneven availability of funding.

To ease the pressure caused by the shortage of officers, the ministry has demanded a cut in the number of administrative personnel and an increase in grassroots-level police. Administrative officers should account for less than 10 percent of the total staff at a police station.

The regulation also states that if the already over-burdened can't get holidays they must receive more pay. "The police are also human beings and they should have rest and fair pay," Wu said.

Li Minzhen also disclosed that Chinese police are to employ civilian staff for administrative posts and non-security sensitive jobs.
 
Posts for software programmers, traffic assistants and secretaries would be opened to civilians. All the civilian positions would be auxiliary jobs or require specialist skills.

However, such a move requires approval from central or provincial authorities in charge of civil servant affairs before implementation. "It would allow us to save limited police resources and make better use of social resources," said Li.

The spokesman also said mainland police departments would work closely with their counterparts in Taiwan to fight against the growing number of cross-Straits crimes.

A driver who robbed an armored bank delivery vehicle and stole 56 million New Taiwan dollars (US$1.75 million) in Taipei was sent back to the island over the weekend after being caught by mainland police in southwest China's Yunnan Province on January 9.

Ministry figures show that since 2000 mainland police have sent 123 suspects back to Taiwan.

(China Daily, Xinhua News Agency January 24, 2007)