The Beijing municipal police department has said it will change its procedures for handling all cases involving foreigners in the capital city.

 

Wu Jianshe, the party chief of the Division of Aliens and the Exit-Entry Administration of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, said all police departments in Beijing will need to be capable of handling cases involving foreigners.

 

He added that any station that refuses to handle a foreigner's case will be breaching its duty by non-performance.

 

Wu said all cases involving foreigners will be distributed to police branches at the district level or lower according to where the incident occurred. The procedure will be the same as the procedure that relates to domestic cases.

 

In the past, all cases involving foreigners, including crimes and appeals for help, were transferred to the Division for Aliens at the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau. But the party chief said the division won't be able to handle all the cases during the Beijing Olympics in 2008, when a large number of foreigners are expected to visit the city.

 

Wu said establishing the same procedure for all cases will help bring the police in line with the internationally recognized best practice.

 

Wu also revealed 27 international sports events will be held this year in Beijing to test the preparation work for the Olympiad. The police will adopt the new procedure for dealing with foreigner-related cases for all of these events.

 

(CRI January 29, 2007)