Chongqing to shuffle police department
- Source: Global Times
- [16:47 March 16 2010]
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The police department heads of Chongqing, China's largest municipality will be reshuffled after the former police chief and more than 100 police officers were removed from their positions in an unprecedented gang crackdown last year, China National Radio reported Tuesday.
The reshuffle will involve most of the heads from the Chongqing Public Security Bureau (PSB), the branch bureaus and the local police stations. They will be dismissed from their positions and compete with other applicants for new postings.
The sweeping reform is under way and the deadline for to apply for posts is in mid-April, according to an officer from the Chongqing PSB who declined to be named.
Open to all the police officers in Chongqing, each vacant position will have at least five applicants competing for it. Every police officer is able to apply for two positions at the same time.
Earlier this year, the Chongqing PSB underwent a big shakeup. New officials Wang Tingyan and Tang Jianhua joined the police department as deputy police chiefs. Many Chinese media view the coming shuffle as an act to renew the police department after the gang crackdown campaign targeting government officials who provided protection for gangs.
Wang Lijun, the current police chief of the Chongqing PSB who led teams in the campaign in June last year said the police department faces even tougher problems from the inside than outside.
Among the high-ranking officials arrested in the gang crackdown was Wen Qiang, former deputy police chief and head of the municipal Judicial Bureau. He allegedly took bribes worth 16 million yuan ($2.4 million) from gangs, government officials and businessmen.
