By JOHN RICHARD SCHROCK
Much of modern Asia is highly crowded, making it very difficult to commit crimes in public. Indeed, international airport conversation half-jokingly suggests that if you want a job where there is very little to do, become a Japanese police officer. Often when I am about to fly back to China, folks will tell me “Now you be careful!” I readily reply that my trip will be far safer than their staying here in America. First, I will be flying in an airplane that is far safer than car traffic here. And I can walk any neighborhood in China, big city or rural town, day or night, in complete safety. I will see no guns in China, not even on regular police officers.
Noontime television also plays an important role. The Chinese business day is 8 a.m.-to-noon and 2 p.m.-to-6 p.m. Unless far from home, students and workers return home for two hours of lunch and family time. Among the large number of television channels, China’s Central Television (CCTV) broadcasts current news. It is an important way to disseminate the latest developments. Recently they broadcast video of an interesting scam. An older man would walk along a narrow street lined with parked cars. Instead of being on the sidewalk side, he walked on the traffic side of the cars, where residential drivers were slowly passing. As a car approached from behind, he would lean slightly outward with his arm and shoulder so the car mirror would appear to strike him. He would then jerk to the side, feigning having been hit. Of course the innocent driver stops and rushes to him, where he describes his terrible pain and negotiates an on-the-spot payment for his injuries. The driver gladly hands over money, wishing to avoid an insurance claim.
Showing this video footage across the whole nation on noon hour television sends a message that authorities know what is occurring and they are making arrests. This of course is dependent on having cameras installed on most side streets. So these scammers try to pick streets without cameras. But the alerted drivers now resist, saying they will await until they check for camera footage. And if the hustler says there are no cameras, the drivers can then dispute the claim the scammer was hurt, or even threaten to beat them. Bottom line is that this practice is detected and curtailed with increased camera coverage. Such “sunshine” can go a long way toward ending criminal practices, and this “electronic sunshine” provided by more extensive cameras in the community is preventing crimes that depend on being unseen.
China is familiar with the value of cameras. It has been nearly a decade since another case hit their news. A woman was seriously hit by a car that then sped off. She laid on the street for some time, as by-passers ignored her situation. Finally a man in a bicycle cart came by and hauled her to the hospital. Since she saw no way to get compensation for medical expenses from the hit-and-run driver, she claimed the cart driver was the one who hit her. Fortunately, there was video footage that showed the actual situation.
But this caused the public and officials to stop and realize how their rapid rise in affluence had caused common folk to stop helping their neighbors for fear of such extortion. When everybody was equal, as in “equally poor” under the old commune system, people helped each other. Now that more than half of China has risen to affluence, that disparity had introduced this disregard. By-passers would not help her for fear of being sued.
So China is installing more surveillance cameras. The job of police is shifting to the archiving and maintenance of huge electronic archives. Yet the United Kingdom has long led in TV surveillance. And the United States is likewise installing cameras in K-12 schools, universities and other potential trouble spots. But the U.S. has more space and fewer people.
The real problems that China faces are the problems of moving to a market economy and handling the conflicts that occur when there is a new disparity in wealth. In America, we worry about more cameras intruding into our privacy. In crowded China, they see more cameras as preventing crime.
John Richard Schrock has trained biology teachers for more than 30 years in Kansas. He also has lectured at 27 universities in 20 trips to China. He holds the distinction of “Faculty Emeritus” at Emporia State University.