Policewomen in central China’s Henan province are tossing aside their uniforms and donning high heels, miniskirts and low-cut blouses in hopes of luring and nabbing rapists.
The women are part of a special squad of young, attractive female officers recently formed by the city of Zhengzhou’s police department to serve as baits for sex assailants.
It’s a novel crime-fighting method aimed at curbing an increase in crime in Zhengzhou’s suburban Zhongyuan district, which has seen more than 50 sex-related crimes in the past year.
One of the cases — the rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl last month — shocked the community and was the catalyst for pressuring police to try new methods of crime fighting. The girl was on her way home in the suburbs of Zhengzhou in the afternoon when she was attacked and later strangled to death.
”In the past, we had male police officers dress up as women. They thought women were too weak to perform such work. But the men were not very convincing,” Liu said.
”In many types of crimes, female police officers can do better than men. Men scare off criminals, whereas women often can draw them out,” Liu said.
While the women on the squad are pretty, they were selected on their skills, Liu said.
”The officers chosen for the squad all graduated from the police academy and went through a lot of training. We were trained in martial arts, firing weapons and crime-solving skills,” Liu said.
They were also selected on their acting ability — a skill they must have to fool their targets, she said.
The female detectives dress to suit their targets and do not always wear high heels.
Many of the recent sex-crime victims have been farmer women and squad members have gone out in the fields in farmers’ attire, complete with hoes and other farming equipment.
”Sometimes we spend all day out in the fields, pulling weeds. Some of the farmers know who we are, some don’t. The women who do feel safer,” Liu said.
Squad members often work alone to entice potential offenders.
They often have nothing but their cellphones and kung fu skills to protect them, as they do not always carry guns or other weapons.
”To counter an enemy, we believe one must first counter one’s own fears,” said Liu, who is married with a child.
With more than two decades of economic reforms and social opening, China, especially Chinese cities, are experiencing crimes never witnessed before.
In recent years, serial murders, deadly bank heists by heavily armed robbers and other violent crimes have regularly hit headlines.
Police departments, however, often do not alert the public to the crimes until they are solved, partly to avoid public panic and also to avoid public pressure and criticism of policing.
Aware of the new challenges they face, police are slowly beginning to do things differently, if only slightly.
More and more police departments are issuing wanted notices and offering rewards to find suspects.
They are also going into communities to raise awareness about self-protection. — Sapa-AFP