Local traffic police in Beijing said they are working on establishing a database on beggars on the Beijing subways, which they will share with subway staff to make it easier for future law enforcement.
A report from the Beijing Youth Daily says that little progress has been seen since the Beijing Traffic Enforcement Unit launched a campaign to crack down on illegal begging on Beijing's subways half a month ago.
Li Haitao, Deputy Director of Beijing's Traffic Enforcement Unit, says that the local traffic police have figured out some ways to reduce illegal begging.
For instance, beggars are mostly seen on Subway Line 1, Line 2 and Line 10, as well as subway stations with large passenger flows like the Xizhimeng Subway Station on Line 2. Many beggars also beg around fixed sites, even though they may temporarily leave a spot when encountered with a traffic enforcement police officer.
Li Haitao also says that the police officers with his unit have worked out some countermeasures, since most beggars are familiar faces. For instance, his team members have established a wechat group to share with other colleagues relevant information of the beggars, including the time and place to spot them.
Li adds that the traffic police officers would only take pictures when the beggars fail to produce their ID cards, disability certificates, or they just refuse to cooperate. Li says that even information sharing on such a small scale has already provided much convenience for the traffic enforcement unit to figure out regular working patterns of the beggars, which has further enhanced their determination to create a database on a larger scale.
For the next step, Li says that the local traffic police will try to build a two-way information sharing system with subway staff to target beggars on the subways more accurately to further promote working efficiency.
