China will gradually expand its police force to ease the country's severe shortage of officers, a senior official said yesterday.

Developed countries typically have 35 police officers for every 10,000 citizens, but the ratio in China is about 11 for per 10,000 citizens, less than developing countries like Brazil and India, according to figures from the Ministry of Public Security.

"The police shortage has existed for quite a long time, and it has become increasingly pressing," Li Mingzhen, deputy director of the ministry's personnel bureau, said at a press conference yesterday.

He warned that the country could experience more crime and public disorder in the coming years, as the experience of some other countries has shown that crime rates rise when a country's per-capita gross domestic product (GDP) is between $1,000 and $3,000.

The shortage creates a heavy workload for officers and could harm their health.

Ministry spokesman Wu Heping said yesterday that in some police departments, more than 60 percent of the officers suffer from chronic diseases.

Ministry investigators found that police in Beijing and Tianjin municipalities and Hebei Province work an average of 20 extra hours every week. Some criminal and grassroots-level police work 50 extra hours a week, the equivalent of about 110 extra days a year, but with insufficient extra pay.

Official statistics show that of the 414 officers who died in the line of duty in 2005, 154, or 37.2 percent, died from health-related causes. Cardio-vascular diseases, which claimed 115, were the No 1 killer.

Faced with such circumstances, Li said China would have to expand its police force in the coming years, though an immediate sharp increase would be impossible.

According to the Regulation on the Administration of Public Security Organs, which took effect this month, police are considered "civil servants", meaning that any expansion of their ranks would require the approval of a special administration under the State Council.

Insufficient financial input may also hinder any enlargement, especially in poor western regions, according to the ministry.

The regulation makes it clear that spending by police departments should be included in the budgets of local governments, but the economic differences between the eastern and western parts of the country could result in uneven budgets.

To ease the pressure caused by the shortage of police, the ministry has demanded a cut in the amount of administrative personnel and an increase in the number in grassroots-level officers. Administrative officers should account for less than 10 percent of the total staff at a police station.

The regulation also spells out that if the already-burdened police officers cannot get holidays, they must receive more pay.

"The police are also human beings, and they should have rest and fair pay," Wu said.

The spokesman also said mainland police departments would work closely with their counterparts in Taiwan to fight against the growing number of cross-Straits crimes.

A driver who had robbed an armoured bank delivery vehicle and stole 56 million New Taiwan dollars ($1.75 million) in Taipei was sent back to the island over the weekend after being captured by mainland police in Southwest China's Yunnan Province on January 9.

Ministry figures show that since 2000, mainland police have sent 123 suspects back to Taiwan.

Source:China Daily