Altogether 133 police officers were deemed to have violated a
code of conduct for police, which was released in 2003 and bans
illicit firing of guns, drinking while carrying firearms, drink
driving, on-duty drinking and gambling, a spokesman from the
Ministry of Public Security (MPS) told Xinhua on Thursday.
These five categories of misconduct are considered the most
prevalent among China's police forces and have greatly tarnished
the police's image, a police statement said.
The 34 police officers were fired for serious violations of the
bans, the police said, confirming a report?published by
Thursday's Legal Daily.
Another 26 police officers were punished for taking bribes from
companies and 33 were punished for misconduct and slack enforcement
in cases of gang crime, drug crime and bribery, the report said,
adding that no officials had been sacked for these violations.
The police authority also punished 13 officials for running
entertainment businesses or helping their relatives run such
ventures with police influence, it said, noting that police
involvement in businesses was commonplace in some regions.
For example, the report said, in western Sichuan province, 236
police officers reported to authorities that they had in some way
abused their power to carry out commercial activities. Penalties
were waived because they confessed to their actions.
The police authority should continue to curb misconduct in order
to administrate police forces at a high standard, Zhu Chunlin,
supervision chief of the MPS, said on Wednesday.
Police records show that 967 police officers had been sacked for
violating the?code of conduct?since it came into effect
in January 2003 with 353 fired last year.
(Xinhua News Agency August 19, 2006)