Public parade of suspects outlawed

• Source: Global Times
• [02:18 July 27 2010]
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By Chen Rui and Huang Jingjing

The Ministry of Public Security has banned the public parading of criminal suspects, ordering the country's police to respect suspected offenders or lawbreakers while maintaining transparent law enforcement, amid intense public outcry that followed the publishing of photos online of sex workers.

Local public security departments were asked to "improve their approaches to law and regulation enforcement" and to "correct rude methods," a ministry notice said, according to the Zhengzhou-based Dahe Daily. Police nationwide are also required to "behave reasonably and in a civilized manner, and fully respect and safeguard the human rights of people who break the law while ensuring openness in law enforcement," it said.

Guo Bei, a ministry press official, confirmed the statement but could not provide an exact date of its issuance. The notice, which could not be found on the website of the ministry, came on the heels of a slew of scandals involving cases of exposing suspects' information.

Posts early this month on a Chinese portal, mop.com, included a set of photos displaying barefoot and handcuffed women who are allegedly prostitutes in police custody in Dongguan, southern Guangdong Province. The women were displayed in public while tied with a rope, causing much discussion among the public.

According to the Dongguan Times, a staff member from the public security bureau of Qingxi Town claimed that the photos were not representative of exposing suspects to the public, but were to identify the site of criminal acts.

He added, however, that there are actions that are improper in the procedure of law enforcement and which need to be adjusted.

Dongguan public security bureau posted on its micro-blog on July 19 that the Qingxi public security bureau has studied the incident to prevent such cases from happening again, and the police officers involved had apparently apologized to the public.

Another case of exposing sex workers occurred in Chenjiawan, Hongshan District of Wuhan City, in Hubei Province. The local police posted on the walls the names and ages of prostitutes and their clients arrested on July 7.

A police officer surnamed Wei from Hongshan Public Security Bureau in Wuhan told the People's Daily that the police intended to publicize the information to warn and frighten people who try to break the law.

But Wei insists that it was to inform the public of the result, not a blacklist designed to humiliate the suspects.