The Shanghai Public Security Bureau yesterday announced during its first online news briefing that local police captured 1,566 fugitives in the first five months of this year with the help of an online "fugitive network" - a police database of wanted criminals across China's mainland.
The number of the suspects caught included 40 manslaughter suspects as well as 414 burglary suspects.
The network started in 2000 and operates like an Intranet police nationwide. "The system has made our work more efficient, and saves cost and personnel," said Guo Jianxin, captain of Shanghai's General Team of Criminal Case Investigation.
With the advent of Internet technology, police forces in different areas are in closer contact with one another and can share information.
In the past, it was common for police to travel to other regions to capture fugitive suspects. However, with the implementation of the fugitive network, police now can rely on their colleagues in the other regions to make the arrest.
Gao said that in the first five months of this year, 35.5 percent of the fugitive suspects were captured by the city's traffic and patrol police or the police for public order.
He Leping, a 53-year-old Fujian Province fisherman who was believed to have started a violent confrontation resulting in two deaths in 1991, was caught by border security officers in Jinshan District on March 26.
Police also said the system has impelled more fugitives to surrender themselves because fugitive network makes it much more difficult for suspected criminals to stay on the run.
Last year, a total of 314 fugitives surrendered, 6.9 percent of the total.
In the first five months of this year a total of 128, or 8.17 percent, turned themselves in to police.
(eastday.com June 20, 2003)
