Law

Don't call 110 - it makes a bad impression

JDM080424popo.jpg
Think before calling

Thinking of calling 110 to report a situation to the police? Think again. Today's Southern Weekly printed the following anecdote from "winyear," a Hangzhou resident who posted it to the paper's BBS:

A fine for calling 110?

My office gets burglarized a lot. There were two incidents in the past few days, so we called 110 to report them. The police were amazingly quick and immediately sent someone over to investigate. All told, there were three sets of cops: first, a team from the precinct office, then one from the 110 command center, and finally from the city PSB, which came to collect evidence or something.

The next day, someone from the station came down to fine us. The reason seemed to be that we had called 110 rather than calling them directly. Reading between the lines, it was probably because the 110 system was province-wide, so when we called, it aired the local precinct's dirty laundry and affected how their superiors evaluated them.

Later, I learned that this was due to a "joint deterrence agreement" signed last year (the agreement was not optional: every work unit in the precinct had to sign at the police station), and that things were run according to those rules. Apparently, we've got to think it over before calling 110 in the future.

Links and Sources
 
There are currently 6 Comments for Don't call 110 - it makes a bad impression.

Comments on Don't call 110 - it makes a bad impression

This is a good proof that central government has weak control at local level.

This is a syndrome of mixed authoritarianism and democratism. Worse that any of two. At local level, officials often interpret policies in their own funny, woefully convenient ways.

Nowadays, these things will be uncovered soon and get fixed, but will happen again for several times, until the final but superficial cure occurs.

Where's the 'democratism'?

Sorry, Lark, I don't think it demonstrates anything of the sort.

In Australia you called 000 (the '911'/'110'/'999' number in Australia) to report a theft you would be fined. I am sure similar legislation exists everywhere.

An emergency is, well, just that. Unless the thief is _in the house while you're also there_ burglary is, well, not.

I'm not sure I'd read a whole lot into this- I've called 110 in Beijing and didn't have any problem (but then perhaps it's because I was a foreigner =P). Regardless, one incident in a country as huge as China doesn't mean it's a big problem.

@Michael

At the local level, officials can have their own interpreting of things. This is inner "democracy". However, this leads to outer confusion, because one same thing can be so different. Please be aware the context I used.

@shannonr

The 000 you referred to is emergency number. 110, ATM, is not emergency number. Although some cities plan to, or already make it emergency only, it's yet uncommon to think it is emergency only. You can't simply make 110 emergency only and citizens automatically know that.

For example, if I am from Beijing, visiting Hangzhou, and want to call police for help, I would call 110, with common sense. It's difficult for me to phone 88776655 in east Hangzhou city and phone 77885566 in west Hangzhou city. Who can remember these numbers? How can I know these numbers?

And wrt. post in Southern Weekly's BBS, situation can be simple: "You call wrong number". But it can also be: "Your call make my upper level think I can't do things well", "Your call leave an impression that local public security is bad", etc.

I think the poster means latter.

@shannonr

btw, you should read the title carefully
"Don't call 110 - it makes a bad impression".

It is very subtle. Who will have such bad impression, you caller or the police upper level?

Post a comment

All comments are moderated and subject to review by Danwei contributors and editors, but well-grounded and articulate comments will be published regardless of which way they lean. Because comments published on any website ultimately contribute to the character of that website, we may decline to publish comments that are irrelevant, redundant, or that do not adhere to generally accepted standards of courtesy; if you are looking for a fight, there are plenty of other venues available online.


Some useful html: <b>bold</b>, <i>italic</i>,
<a href="http://www.danwei.org">link</a>

Danwei Model Workers
laomo2008fpA.jpg
Recommended blogs and new media
China Media Timeline
Major media events over the last three decades
Books on China
Leslie_Chang_Factory_Girls_s.jpg
To die poor is a sin: An excerpt of Factory Girls by Leslie T. Chang.
In Wang Shuo's No Man's Land: Geremie Barme addresses Wang Shuo's 千万别把我当人.
Swimming with Mao, a memoir essay: This memoir piece is by Xujun Eberlein, author of the new short story book Apologies Forthcoming'.
Front Page of the Day
A different newspaper every weekday
From the Vault
Classic Danwei posts
+ Lupine lactose intolerant (2008.05): A book review of Wolf Totem by Linda Jaivin.
+ Slow, polluting seniors removed from Beijing city streets (2007.01): Zhang Rui writes about a Beijing plan to ban seniors from the city's streets, with the goal of reducing gridlock among pedestrians.
+ Street hawker cries of Beijing (2006.12): Yang Changhe demonstrates hawker's cries in a video shot by Muzimei.
Danwei Archives
Danwei Feeds
Via Feedsky rsschiclet2.png (on the mainland)
or Feedburner rsschiclet.gif (blocked in China)
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Main posts: All main page posts
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Top Links: Links from the top bar
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Danwei Jobs: Want ads
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Danwei Digest: Updated daily, 19:30