Village walls work: local PSB
- Source: Global Times
- [08:28 April 25 2011]
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By Wei Na
One year after several Daxing villages were walled off to improve security, the district's public security bureau (PSB) has reported an over 30-percent drop in crime. The bureau revealed its statistics on Friday, while also announcing that this "community administration" approach would cover the entire district by June.
"[The program] didn't get off to a good start because of debates about the original 'sealing off villages' program," Daxing PSB director Chen Debao told the Beijing Daily last Friday. "We have renamed the program 'community administration' and really hope that locals can see an improvement in their environment."
The bureau announced that the incidence of criminal cases in the district's northern villages dropped by 33.8 percent compared to the same time period in 2010, while in 79 southern villages it decreased by 45.7 percent.
Starting in April 2010, Daxing built walls around 16 pilot villages in efforts to reduce crime by controlling non-Beijing residents' access.
Now 173,837 meters of barrier walls have been built in 151 villages, and 4,893 guards take turns manning 500 security booths in the district. A total of 2,276 surveillance cameras have been installed to keep watch from above, according to a bureau publicity official surnamed Wang. Another 54 old residential areas have also implemented entry-exit controls.
"The villages are being built into communities, and the old residential areas are being upgraded and improved in the areas of controlling entry and exit as well as hygiene," Wang told the Global Times.
The reported decrease in crime still has yet to help the program win favor with some.
"It just gives a more reasonable excuse to lock people up. Wouldn't the incidence of crime be zero if they put everybody in prison?" Ji Junjie, director of the Beijing Aihua language institute, wrote on his microblog.
Wang confirmed the implementation of "community administration" would focus on the remaining un-walled villages in southern Daxing.
"The benefits of a more orderly environment make the restrictions worth it," Wang said.
Li Hong, a sociology professor at Beijing Normal University, had concerns about the program's expansion.
"This is not the best way to adjust the demographic profile, which is often unfairly believed to be the cause of high crime rates," she said.
She added that walling off villages from outsiders could also have an economic impact by causing a shortage of workers, in addition to violating principles of social tolerance.
