During the two sessions of the Communist Party of China this year, Han Deyun, a lawyer at Chongqing Sotong Law Firm and a deputy to the National People’s Congress, raised the issue of preventing the abuse of “electronic police,” revealing the many ways in which traffic control departments set up “fine traps” based on self-interest expansion.
According to statistics, the total amount of traffic fines in China will be around 300 billion yuan in 2020. By the end of 2020, there will be about 281 million civilian cars in the country, and the average fine per car will be more than 1,000 yuan.
On March 9, Han Deyun told Interface News that he had observed for several years the unreasonable and abusive use of China’s traffic road marking and “electronic police” systems, which generate huge amounts of fine revenue for traffic control authorities.
In some areas with a high concentration of “electronic police,” such as the northbound direction of Beijing‘s Jing-Xin Expressway at the Jiuting Bridge, there were 40,790 motor vehicle violations of prohibited signs in a month, or an average of 1,359 per day, Han said.
He cited as examples that some provinces and cities deliberately set lower maximum speeds on partially level, open roads, set multiple speed limits on the same road with no buffer zone to switch between them, change vehicle lane settings when the road is open to cause pressure lines, and give parking violation penalties across the board in roadside areas.
Han Deyun also mentioned that “there are some super flashing devices but to the normal traffic order to bring security risks, but also become the traffic control department based on self-interest expansion of the ‘fine trap’.”
The “electronic police” is the common name for the “intelligent traffic violation monitoring system,” including red light running, speeding capture and other devices to capture illegal.
In recent years, the Chinese Communist Party‘s traffic management department has been criticized for generating revenue through traffic fines. The fines have become a “magic weapon” for traffic control authorities to enrich themselves, and are ironically referred to by the public as “robbers with a license.
In October 2018, Hunan Province, Changsha City Public Security Traffic Police detachment ring city management brigade three squadrons in front of the office building brazenly hanging printed with “struggle three quarters, win the battle, out of 130 million yuan target task” banner.
In June 2016, the official website of Fujian Provincial Expressway Co., Ltd. released the news that the provincial company held a video conference on the province’s “grasp violations, promote revenue” activities, the authorities asked the entire system staff “everyone has an indicator” and proposed to increase revenue “Three ten million” indicators. It is reported that the authorities of Fujian Province asked the transport sector to complete the 2016 toll collection target of 13.3 billion yuan.
From March 25 to April 17, 2016, the Shanghai Public Security Bureau (PSB) conducted a so-called road traffic violation rectification operation, requiring all of the city’s 6,700-plus traffic police officers to be on duty. An internal notice from the Shanghai Public Security Bureau was exposed online, which showed that traffic police could not go off duty without completing the number of penalties for the day, which was based on the target issued by the Shanghai Municipal Committee.
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