Video link-up technology that allows victims of crime to communicate face-to-face with police officers is being extended in the southern city.

Two video annunciators electronic devices with built-in cameras linked to police monitoring centers have been installed at Dongmen Street, a pedestrianized area.

Six others were put in place in another commercial centre of the city, at the main crossroads at North Huaqiang Road, two years ago.

It is part of a crackdown on crime, which will also see 200,000 surveillance cameras erected in the city by the end of this year.

The annunciators are aimed at boosting the confidence of local residents and also to help police pinpoint the exact location of a crime.

"If people are robbed and are near a video annunciator, they can press a button on it, which connects them to the monitoring centre and allows them to communicate," a police officer on duty at Dongmen Street said.

"By learning of the exact location of the theft or robbery, the monitoring center?can search the area for suspects as the whole commercial center is under the surveillance of a number of electronic monitors. It could be more efficient to catch the suspects."

The Luohu division of the local public security bureau, which is in charge of the Dongmen commercial area, said it planned to erect an additional eight video annunciators in the near future, according to a report by Chinese newspaper Information Times.

The annunciators in North Huaqiang Road commercial center have been used by more than 200 people, who were either in critical situations or needed help in tracing lost children, Shenzhen Commercial Daily reported on Sunday.

A bank clerk surnamed Li, who was just passing the new equipment, told China Daily she was pleased at the latest efforts to crackdown on crime. She also suggested the government should do more to advertise the new facilities.

The city has more than 7 million migrant workers and faces severe security problems brought by the huge flow of people.

It launched a pilot scheme at the end of 2003 to put the 1.4-square-kilometer North Huaqiang Road commercial centre, which hosts Asia's largest electronic components market, under the surveillance of 38 electronic monitors, which has proved a great success.

According to police statistics, there were at least 300 criminal cases in the area on average every month in 2002, which dropped to around 44 last year.

(China Daily January 10, 2006)