How can the mechanism explored in Shanghai resolve conflicts?, The siblings are at odds over a property dispute
Late at night, the Liangcheng Xincun Police Station of Hongkou Public Security Bureau received a "110" report: Ms. Liu's younger brother rushed into her house and made a big fuss.
How could siblings be so incompatible? Originally, the two had multiple disputes over property disputes, and this time the situation escalated. Police officer Ke Jia is aware that if not handled in a safe and timely manner, there is a possibility of further escalation of the conflict. "Do you want a lawyer to help you analyze?" Ke Jia introduced a "three institute linkage" mechanism for resolving conflicts and disputes between the siblings, led by the Public Security Police Station and jointly participated by the Judicial Office and the Law Firm. Together, they clarified right and wrong, resolved their grievances, and also brought a gratifying result to the incident.
In Shanghai, a modern metropolis, a large number of contradictions and disputes contain complex economic and legal relationships. Only by using the law can problems be fundamentally solved. In recent years, under the leadership of the Party Committee of the Municipal Public Security Bureau, the Hongkou Public Security Sub bureau has continuously explored and improved the "three linkage" mechanism, integrated multiple forces, listened to the demands of the masses, and provided legal services, striving to eliminate conflicts and disputes at the source and resolve them at the grassroots level, and using governance thinking to write a new chapter of the "Fengqiao Experience" of the new era.
Legal services are easily accessible
In March of this year, in addition to police officer Ke Jia, there were also lawyer Li Jinzhou and mediators appointed by the district judicial bureau who walked into the "three linked" people's mediation room with the Liu siblings.
This is a simple room, with a sign hanging at the entrance that reads "Three Joint Mediation Workshops", and a display board against the wall featuring photos and nameplates of on duty police officers, lawyers, and mediators. There is a table and six chairs in the room. The Liu siblings sit on either side of the table, with the police officers next to their sister and the lawyers next to their younger brother, listening to them recount their past experiences.
The siblings have a single uncle who is over eighty years old and has been taken care of by Ms. Liu for over a decade. In the past two years, Ms. Liu has started working part-time to earn money to support her family, but she can't spare time. Her younger brother, Mr. Liu, takes care of her uncle more. Uncle has a house under his name, and seeing that he is old, he agreed to leave the house to his sister, who will compensate his younger brother with 30% of the house price.
It was originally arranged properly, but unexpectedly, after Ms. Liu transferred the house to her own name at the end of last year, there was no follow-up. Mr. Liu repeatedly sought advice from his sister, but she was unable to provide any money for a while. Over time, the conflict between the siblings intensified and gradually evolved into arguments and conflicts.
Lawyer Li Jinzhou gradually clarified the demands of both parties and also found the crux of the problem - the sister's reckless transfer of property has caused anxiety and dissatisfaction for the younger brother. "Although the sister promised to give money, the younger brother is worried that his uncle's words will be baseless and his rights will lack protection in a hundred years."
Eliminating Mr. Liu's doubts is the key to resolving conflicts. Li Jinzhou told Mr. Liu that it is advisable to sign an agreement that is recognized by both parties. "This is legally binding and both parties can receive protection.".
When the siblings walked into the "three linked" mediation room again, they signed an agreement under the witness of the police, people's mediators, and lawyers, stipulating that the sister would pay the compensation to the younger brother in monthly installments, to be paid within 5 years; During this period, the property cannot be sold; If my uncle passes away during this period, my sister must pay all the remaining debts in one lump sum; The responsibility for supporting the uncle is borne by the older sister at 90% and the younger brother at 10%. "As soon as the agreement was signed, everyone breathed a sigh of relief." Ke Jia was deeply impressed and before leaving the mediation room, the hands of the siblings clasped once again.
The ups and downs of the Liu siblings are a microcosm of the diversification and complexity of grassroots conflicts and disputes. According to data, from 2020 to 2022, the average number of dispute police cases in Hongkou District exceeded 24000 per year, accounting for about 20% of the total police cases. Neighborhood relationships and property services within the community, labor compensation outside the community, and conflicts and disputes related to engineering and shelter have gradually become the most common situations faced by police officers in police stations.
For a long time, community police officers and people's mediators have been the main force in mediating grassroots conflicts and disputes. Why do police stations introduce the power of lawyers? In the view of Xu Liming, the director of the Liangcheng New Village Police Station of the Hongkou Public Security Bureau, the traditional "old lady uncle" style dispute mediation often focuses on reasoning and expressing the situation. "However, with the improvement of the city's awareness of civil law governance, the demands are more diverse, and" having laws to rely on "and" having evidence in the law "can better reach the consensus points of all parties involved and improve the efficiency of resolving conflicts and disputes.".
"Many conflicts and disputes have intensified, not because the people deliberately want to cause trouble, but because legal services are too far away from them, and people don't know where to find 'law'. In addition, litigation and other means are costly and time-consuming, and some people have no choice but to give up taking the legal path." Liu Guoqing, Director of the Hongkou Branch of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau, introduced that the original intention of the "three institutions linkage" mechanism is to promote public security, judicial mediation, and lawyer forces to actively go to the grassroots level, "provide accessible, low-cost, and efficient legal services and judicial protection, and guide residents to use governance thinking and the rule of law path to solve problems."
Multisubjective rational participation
Since last year, Fang Fang, a community police officer at the Liangcheng Police Station, has been involved in conflicts and disputes arising from the installation of elevators. He will bring the parties involved to the "three linkage" mediation room in the community.
In the past two years, conflicts and disputes arising from the installation of elevators have become a common problem faced by many grassroots communities in Shanghai. The hydropower community in Hongkou District was built in 1983, with a permanent population of over 4000 people, and more than half of them are elderly people over 60 years old. For high-rise residents, installing elevators has become a necessity. However, since the community started adding elevators in 2021, the conflicts among residents have been constantly prominent, and the project of adding elevators to benefit the people has been hindered for a time. By March 2022, the community had only successfully installed two elevators.
When soliciting opinions in the early stage, the proportion of owners who agreed has reached the statutory proportion, and conflicts often occur during the construction stage: a resident on the ground floor of a building believed that noise would interfere with their own life, blocking the excavator from entering and starting work; Another building has residents who believe that elevators will affect their own lighting, lying on the ground to block construction... The neighborhood committee officials are very helpless about this.
"The act of preventing construction directly leads to conflicts between this group of residents and those who need to increase elevators." Fang Fang said that the police can only persuade and guide them on site to prevent the conflict from escalating. "But if the root cause cannot be solved, such situations will happen again and again."
After launching the "three linkage" mechanism, Zhou Jianjiong, a lawyer from Shanghai Siji Law Firm, joined the mediation team. "Whether something is reasonable or louder than anyone else, but whether it is compliant or illegal," he sat with residents who were preventing construction and popularized the detailed provisions of the Civil Code and relevant regulations in Shanghai. "Since the entire process of adding stairs to this building is legal and compliant, obstructing the construction team from entering the site is definitely unreasonable in law. Even if it causes trouble in court, it will not be supported..." After listening to the interpretation and reasoning, many residents have a book in their minds.
"If there are any specific demands and ideas regarding the installation of elevators, you can express them." Following Zhou Jianjiong's words, mediator Qiu Xiangqin solicited opinions and suggestions from residents. At this point, many people no longer blindly oppose, but instead take the opportunity to express their own demands.
When residents are willing to express their opinions rationally, the resolution of conflicts and disputes has a foundation. Relying on the "three linkage" mechanism, the street housing management office, elevator companies, industry committees, and resident autonomous groups continuously participate and form a "special team for adding elevators". They have held six elevator installation publicity meetings and consultation meetings, providing residents with concentrated interpretation of elevator installation policies and welfare clauses, and technical consulting services; Visited more than 600 households with opinions, collected and summarized the difficulties in installing elevators in each building, and formulated a "one elevator, one plan". Now, all 29 buildings in the hydropower community have completed their opinion solicitation. Currently, 7 buildings have completed elevator installation, 10 buildings are under construction, and 12 buildings are undergoing expert evaluation.
In the view of the cadres of the neighborhood committee of the broadcasting and television community, not only has the conflict of adding elevators been resolved, but the "three linkage" mechanism also provides a new platform for consultation and discussion among all parties. "Through repeated negotiations to resolve conflicts, everyone's communication becomes more in-depth. This not only allows us to understand the true demands of residents, but also makes residents the true participants and beneficiaries of community governance."
Similar feelings are not an exception. Some respondents believe that the process of diversified resolution of conflicts and disputes through the "three linkage" is also invisibly promoting various forces in society to actively participate in community governance, and the concept of co construction, co governance, and sharing is gradually deepening in people's hearts.
Only by deeply penetrating the work tentacles into the masses can we build a solid foundation for safety. At present, 9 police station dispute resolution rooms and 198 neighborhood committee legal service rooms have been built in 8 streets in Hongkou district. "Three linked" mediation rooms have been established in 10 commercial districts, 3 hospitals, and 31 schools to provide free and convenient legal services and judicial protection for the public.
Resolving conflicts and disputes at the grassroots level
Resolving conflicts and disputes at the grassroots level may seem like a small matter, but it is a major concern for the interests of the masses and social stability.
In April of this year, the Sichuan North Road Police Station received a report of a salary seeking police case: more than ten decoration workers at a seafood restaurant demanded their salaries from the owner Mr. Shao due to labor disputes. Mr. Ke Shao not only ignored, but also kept turning off his phone. The group of wage workers is angry, and a single mistake may lead to a mass security incident.
The police took the workers to the police station and summoned Mr. Shao, the shop owner, to the police station. The "three linkage" mechanism will be immediately activated. This time, in addition to mediators and lawyers, the police also introduced a labor supervision department.
From legal reasoning to criticism and education, after various efforts, both labor and management agreed on the payment method on the same day. The shop owner signed a commitment letter and quickly paid the workers' wages. The risk of a mass event is eliminated invisibly.
With the continuous exploration of mechanism construction, the "three linkage" is gradually building a new pattern of "3+N". At present, Hongkou District has introduced functional departments such as education, civil affairs, human resources and social security, ecological environment, housing and urban-rural construction, health and hygiene, market supervision, and housing management to join the "three linkage" mechanism. According to the types of conflicts and disputes, experts from different units jointly participate in mediation, discuss and resolve good strategies, and enhance the effectiveness of mediation.
In April this year, the "Three Links" mini program was officially launched, with columns such as "Legal Aid", "Mediation Appointment", and "Clue Reporting". If there are legal inquiries, the lawyer will reply within 24 hours; If there are conflicts or disputes that require mediation, you can make an online appointment. "For many young residents, timely and responsive online legal services are more in line with their needs." Li Dongting, Deputy Leader of the Public Security Detachment of Hongkou Public Security Bureau, introduced that since its launch, the platform has received over 340 online appointments for conflict resolution and over 200 online legal consultations every month.
Continuously adapting to new changes and actively responding to new problems is the key to maintaining the lasting vitality of the "three linkage" mechanism. In order to actively explore more "hidden" contradictions, the Hongkou Public Security Department uses data models such as duplicate police situation verification to investigate and analyze information such as 110 police situations, 12345 hotlines, window reports, letters and visits. At the same time, it relies on more than 20000 community, building, unit and other group prevention and control forces to timely discover hidden dangers around it, promote local active intervention, and strive to eliminate various conflicts and risks from the source.
The valuable experience accumulated by Hongkou Public Security in continuously improving the "three linkage" mechanism has provided a new direction for Shanghai to improve its diversified mediation pattern. In July of this year, the Shanghai Public Security Bureau issued the Implementation Plan for Promoting the "Three Links" Mechanism and Strengthening the Investigation and Resolution of Contradictions and Disputes, which comprehensively promoted the "Three Links" working mechanism throughout the city, classified and implemented mediation and resolution measures, and further improved the diversified mediation structure. Since the beginning of this year, the resolution rate of conflicts and disputes in the city has exceeded 99%. Since July, the number of conflicts and disputes investigated and resolved in the city has increased by 4.17% year-on-year.
