Police deaths blamed on overwork

China Daily, April 5, 2011

Overwork has been the main culprit to blame for the deaths of police officers on duty in the Chinese mainland in the past five years, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

Since 2006, 47 percent of the 2,182 officers who died on duty died from overwork, while those who work in the front lines of law enforcement, such as traffic officers and officers at local police stations, suffered the greatest number of sudden deaths.

"The Labor Law mandates an 8-hour work day, but police officers work much longer," Dai Peng, dean of the investigation department of the Beijing-based Chinese People's Public Security University, told China Daily on Monday. "It's especially true of those who work in the front lines and are subject to prolonged intensive stresses that have seriously affected their physical and psychological health."

A survey conducted throughout the country in 2005 showed that police officers usually work from 11 hours to 15 hours a day and often have only one day off after three weeks of work.

According to Wang Dawei, a professor at the university, Western countries have an average of 35 police officers for every 10,000 of their citizens. China, in contrast, only has 11 officers for every 10,000 citizens.

"One police officer in China shoulders the workload of three police officers (in the West)," Wang told Globe Magazine, which is based in Beijing. "So they couldn't be more tired."

Shen Zhandong, a policeman from Zhengzhou, capital of Henan province, died from overwork on his 28th birthday, when he was on duty in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.