Shanghai adds 911 sets of "electronic police": can they replace traffic police? How to avoid "substituting punishment for management"?

Recently, the Shanghai Public Security Bureau Traffic Police Corps has announced the number and locations of new "electronic police" in the city every week, which has attracted the attention and discussion of citizens.

According to the relevant information released on the official account of "Focus 4 Shanghai Traffic Police Micro release", the reporter made a rough statistics: from July 24 to September 10 this year, Shanghai added 911 sets of "electronic police" equipment. Industry insiders introduce that these "electronic police" are established after comprehensive consideration based on factors such as the number of violations, accident situations, and road conditions.

Not only Shanghai, but relevant data shows that multiple cities across the country are adding "electronic police". The reason behind this is that "electronic police" can effectively solve the problem of insufficient police force, improve law enforcement capabilities and efficiency, and significantly reduce traffic accident rates.

However, an increasing number of "electronic police" have made traffic managers overly reliant on technology, and there may be a possibility of "using punishment instead of management," which has raised public concerns. Some legal professionals have pointed out that there were gaps and blind spots in the regulation of "electronic police", leading to the proliferation of chaos.

So, can "electronic police" replace traffic police? How to avoid situations where punishment is used instead of management?

Birth and Development

If the "electronic police" were still in their original form, perhaps there would not be these concerns.

In 1997, the first film style "electronic police" began operating at the intersection of Xinzhou Road and Hongli Road in Futian District, Shenzhen. This intersection was a remote one at the time, with frequent traffic violations such as running red lights, which resulted in frequent traffic accidents.

The first set of "electronic police" uses photography to fix evidence of illegal motor vehicles running red lights. In less than two hours of use, a roll of 36 negative film was taken. On the same day, the film was changed three times and more than 100 photos of illegal vehicles were taken.

Now it seems that this method is a bit outdated, but it has pioneered non on-site law enforcement in China, playing a deterrent role in traffic violations, and the number of traffic accidents at this intersection has significantly decreased.

Three months later, the Ministry of Public Security requested 23 cities across the country and small and medium-sized cities with conditions to promote the practice of Shenzhen's traffic monitoring system to investigate and punish illegal activities, and "electronic police" began to become popular.

At that time, the supervision of "electronic police" was still blank, until April 2009 when the "Regulations on the Handling of Road Traffic Safety Violations" were implemented. According to regulations, the location of "electronic police" must be made public to the public, and many cities have made relevant data public for the first time. At that time, the number of electronic police officers in Shenzhen, Beijing, and Shanghai far exceeded other cities in China, with 2178, 1958, and 1740 respectively.

In the following years, the number of motor vehicles and population density in cities continued to increase, making traffic safety management more difficult. In order to make up for the law enforcement shortcomings of insufficient police force, "electronic police" are widely used as law enforcement auxiliary forces in traffic violations and accident prone sections of various cities.

The "electronic police" on the streets

After iterative updates, "electronic police" are becoming increasingly intelligent. In 2016, the "Sonar Electronic Police" was introduced - once a vehicle honks, the system will automatically detect the location of the honking, recognize the license plate number of the honking vehicle, and convert the sound into special ripples to collect evidence. One year later, the composite "electronic police" appeared on the streets of Shanghai, with a device capable of simultaneously capturing 13 types of traffic violations, exuding a strong sense of technology.

The management objects are no longer limited to motor vehicles, and traffic violations such as pedestrians running red lights, non motor vehicles running red lights, and going against traffic can now be recognized and documented.

Today, "electronic police" are moving towards the era of big data, with increasingly powerful data collection and processing capabilities. They can provide accurate and dynamic information support in the analysis of traffic violations, the investigation of traffic accidents, and the statistics of traffic flow.

For traffic managers, "electronic police" can capture past illegal behaviors that are difficult to detect and obtain evidence, such as motor vehicles not giving way to pedestrians and not using lights according to regulations, providing assistance and support for frontline law enforcement forces, promoting the refinement and intelligence level of traffic management.

Drivers are also accustomed to the existence of electronic police, driving on roads where police officers are not present, and being urged to always be vigilant and law-abiding.

Concerns and regulation

With the advancement of application technology and the reduction of equipment costs, more and more "electronic police" are on duty every year, and some problems are beginning to emerge.

In recent years, there has been a phenomenon of "massive fines" in some areas of "electronic police", and law enforcement agencies have become overly reliant on "electronic police", resulting in a tendency to "use punishment instead of management". Behind this, there are both factors of non-compliance with equipment, as well as incentives for unreasonable location, and even unreasonable enforcement concepts and methods.

A legal professional pointed out that the issue of hollowing out the supervision of "electronic police" has long been ignored: "The lack of rigid legal constraints has given space for the indiscriminate establishment of" electronic police ". According to his observation, some local public security organs do not conduct on-site inspections in advance and do not provide reasonable justification when setting up electronic monitoring equipment.". "In this way, the chaos of 'massive fines' derived from' electronic police 'is inevitable."

To standardize the auxiliary law enforcement behavior of "electronic police", there must be laws to follow first. The revised version of the Administrative Penalty Law in 2021 provides comprehensive regulations on the quality requirements, settings, use, and procedures of electronic technology monitoring equipment. It is required that electronic technology monitoring equipment should record illegal facts truthfully, clearly, completely, and accurately; Administrative authorities shall review whether the content of the records meets the requirements; Those who have not been reviewed or have not met the requirements after review shall not be used as evidence of administrative penalties.

"The establishment of an 'electronic police' requires compliance with the requirements of the rule of law, and the key is not the quantity, but the standardization and restraint of its establishment and disclosure, the fixation and review of relevant evidence, and law enforcement procedures. In the view of Zeng Gang, the director of the Administrative Law Teaching and Research Office of East China University of Political Science and Law, this regulation has operability and binding force, which helps to solve problems such as' excessive fines'.".

Blind spots still exist. Some legal professionals have pointed out that some rules are still unclear, especially the rationality of the establishment of "electronic police" has not been refined in terms of rules. "What is reasonable? There is room for discretion, and standards vary from place to place. For example, setting up an 'electronic police' on a certain road section is an important question of whether it is necessary and who will argue for approval."

A frontline traffic police officer told reporters that in practice, the setting of "electronic police" will comprehensively consider factors such as the number of illegal activities, traffic accidents, and road conditions and facilities. They will also organize joint inspections by representatives of the National People's Congress, members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, traffic, traffic police, and technical supervision departments to rearrange or adjust unreasonable equipment, and fully solicit opinions from the public to make a reasonable layout of the equipment.

In interviews with reporters, some also believe that in cities like Shanghai, the number of "electronic police" is "not enough" compared to the large number of motor vehicles, non motor vehicles, and pedestrians. "It is necessary to increase investment in 'electronic police'. Many people are still not aware of it on the road, and where can they rely on police to manage it?" A citizen told reporters that they support the establishment of 'electronic police', and its functions should also be expanded and upgraded. "Especially for delivery and delivery vehicles, they should be strictly managed using 'electronic police'."

The "electronic police" on the streets

Education and punishment

The Shanghai Public Security Traffic Police Department is not the first to release information related to "electronic police". In fact, this is administrative information that has long been required by law to be disclosed. However, people also have different opinions on this approach.

Most citizens believe that disclosing "electronic police" information is more beneficial for drivers to comply with traffic regulations. Some citizens have expressed that the relevant departments did not set up "electronic police" casually, but targeted the regional road conditions and frequent traffic violations: "For example, on sections with frequent illegal lane changes, drivers who know there are" electronic police "will definitely abide by the rules, objectively reducing the number of violations."

Citizens who believe that it should not be disclosed state that only "electronic police" who do not know where to hide can serve as a deterrent and warning: after knowing which road sections have been captured and what illegal activities, "electronic police" consciously "abide by the law", but still break the law in road sections without "electronic police". In their view, education is the fundamental way to truly form good law-abiding habits. Only by instilling a sense of law-abiding in a generation from an early age can we fundamentally change bad traffic habits.

The clash of different viewpoints actually points to a deeper problem: although electronic police have achieved efficient punishment, they have not completed efficient education.

Punishment and education are often seen as the "two legs" of law enforcement. Some industry insiders believe that investigating and punishing traffic violations is only a management tool aimed at educating traffic participants, thereby maintaining road traffic order, improving traffic efficiency, protecting the personal and property safety of traffic participants, and other legitimate rights and interests.

From this perspective, there is clearly a lack of "electronic police". For example, if a traffic violator is caught and receives illegal information afterwards, they may complain about "bad luck" and "next time you need to avoid the camera," but they may not truly internalize traffic rules and safety awareness.

What is even more alarming is that some local traffic management departments equate "electronic police" with on-site law enforcement by traffic police. "'Electronic police 'is not a panacea for solving traffic violations, it needs to work together with various methods such as road conditions and traffic sign settings. Zeng Gang pointed out that treating' electronic police 'as a punishment tool while ignoring factors such as road conditions and defects undoubtedly deviates from the original intention of using technology to empower traffic safety management.".

Artificial and Intelligence

In the view of some industry insiders, it is a trend for traffic safety management in mega cities like Shanghai, including traffic law enforcement, to rely more on technology for assistance. The increasingly intelligent "electronic police" is undoubtedly an important auxiliary management tool.

In fact, the widespread use of "electronic police" does not mean that police officers are liberated. On the contrary, all illegal acts captured by "electronic police" need to be verified and confirmed by police officers in the background. This workload is increasing exponentially with the increase of "electronic police".

Of course, evaluating the effectiveness of traffic safety management cannot be solely based on the amount of traffic violation corrections. We cannot judge based on the installation density of smart devices such as electronic police, or even the amount of fines created.

"Only by entrusting what can be entrusted to the 'electronic police' can the police force be liberated to manage the 'difficult and complicated problems' that cannot be managed by the' electronic police '. Industry insiders believe that under the protection of legal and reasonable mechanisms, the widespread use of' electronic police 'will not bring dependence and fatigue to traffic police, but can truly use their power on the' cutting edge '.".

For example, changing lanes at will has always been one of the frequent traffic violations on elevated roads, and it is also an illegal behavior that many drivers detest. As early as 2016, the Shanghai Public Security Traffic Police Department set up "electronic police" on 7 elevated sections with frequent illegal lane changes. After a period of time, the number of illegal lane changes on relevant sections significantly decreased. At the same time, the traffic police department also insists on scientifically adjusting the signs and markings of elevated roads based on illegal data, citizen suggestions, and other information, optimizing traffic organization from the source, and reducing traffic safety hazards.

Capture warning signs of "electronic police" for illegal parking

"For law enforcement agencies, the addition of 'electronic police' is more important in identifying management shortcomings and risk hazards from more illegal data. With the support of big data technology, this should not be difficult to achieve. For example, legal professionals say that an average of hundreds of violations occur on a road section every day, which is obviously not just the driver's fault, but should also be reflected on: whether road signs are set up prominently, whether road markings are clear, and whether traffic lights are set up reasonably..."

The small "electronic police" carry great expectations: it is not only related to the credibility of law enforcement, but also to the governance ability and level, and more importantly, to the vital interests of each traffic participant. Therefore, regulating the establishment and use of "electronic police" and ensuring its standardized operation on the track of the rule of law is necessary to better ensure traffic safety and safeguard the rights and interests of all parties.