She is not a police officer.

But the 21-year-old college student, who is named B17KG online, was on the scene in Foshan's Zhumiao Road on Sunday to help local police catch two theft suspects.

"It was the first time for me to see real guns, with which police reacted so quickly and caught the thieves," said the student, who pretended to be a police officer's lover in spotting the thieves.

She was one of seven netizens who had been invited by local police during a campaign to crack some criminal cases over the weekend.

"The police have a really hard job to crack down on street crimes. We walked under the burning sun for almost four hours before spotting the suspects," she said.

The move was part of the bureau's campaign to enhance communication and interaction between police and the public, said Zhang Peizhong, a police officer with the Foshan public security bureau. Local police and netizens who had been invited to participate caught 17 suspects and seized four stolen cell phones and two bikes.

Prior to the weekend's move, the bureau had invited local people's congress deputies, political consultative members and reporters to "experience police daily work," Zhang said.

However, questions have been raised on the Internet about participants' safety during the campaign. "It is the obligation of police, not the public, to crack down on crimes. What if the participants had been injured?" a netizen describing himself as "Zhujiang Yeren" said at the forum on dayoo.com.

Zhang said participants were only invited to be involved in minor criminal cases like stealing and robberies on buses and streets.

Feng Shengping, a researcher with the Guangdong provincial situation study and research center, upheld the move, saying it has helped the public understand a police officer's job.

Source: China Daily