An elderly beggar tries to solicit money from subway passengers on a Beijing subway train. (Photo : www.scmp.com)
Transportation authorities in Beijing are planning to create a database of beggars as part of the crackdown on mendicancy inside the subway trains, the Global Times reported.
The report said that the police, subway employees and transportation law enforcement officers can access the database to help identify those who have turned the one-time practice into a profession and detain them.
Li Haitao, chief of the Beijing Municipal Transportation Law Enforcement Corps, told China National Radio on May 19, Tuesday, that beggars are noticeable in subway lines 1, 2 and 10, and many of them beg repeatedly and are good at eluding authorities.
Li added that it is difficult for the subway police force to cover all 300 of Beijing's subway stations with only 80 officers.
Police will detain beggars who are included in the database after being caught three times begging on the subway, Li said.
The police chief added that a WeChat group for law enforcement offices will be established to enable them to share information on the beggars they catch, as well as photos and the times and locations where the beggars were found. He said this will help officers to know the begging patterns.
On May 1, when the new regulation prohibiting begging in the subway went into effect, law enforcement officers began patrolling the subway stations, but officers have only warned beggars.
The report said that under the new regulations, beggars will be stopped and warned. If they are caught in the subway train, a maximum fine of 1,000 yuan ($161) will be imposed on them.
The Beijing Times reported that 60 law enforcement officers have stopped 124 illegal activities in the subway, with 33 instances of begging but not a single offender was fined.
Hu Xingdou, a political science professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology, said that the measures taken by transportation authorities, including the new database, will not help in getting rid of beggars on public transportation.
"Police should severely punish beggars involved in fraud and abusing the disabled, but provide shelter for the elderly and poor disabled," Hu told the Global Times.
