Policemen keep watch outside Shanghai Zhabei's district police station. (Photo : Reuters)
Shanghai police officials are adding teeth to their campaign against jaywalkers by posting the pictures of violators on their social media account.
According to local media Thepaper.cn, a dozen pedestrians were caught by police cameras crossing on red traffic lights last week. Among those violators were four foreigners. Their pictures were posted immediately on Huangpu District Bureau's official social media account on April 15, Friday.
The violators, the police said, had snubbed warnings and declined to admit to their offense.
The shame campaign will also extend to newspapers and selected TV programmes. Offenders, however, will not be named. Only their pictures will be posted in an effort to deter the public from breaking traffic rules.
Past efforts to curb jaywalking incidents include requiring offenders to wear a green hat. However, this was altered after drawing flak from citizens, who found the choice of color too offensive, said in a South China Morning Post report.
In China, the expression "wearing a green hat" denotes that a man is cheating on his wife.
Police officials eventually allowed violators to wear a hat in another color, the SCMP added.
Jaywalking is a rampant problem in major cities in China. In 2008, there were more than 7.78 million jaywalking violations at various intersections in Shanghai, reported Reuters.
In some cases, offenders go to the extremes just to dodge a ticket.
In Nov. 2015, a woman knelt down in front of an officer after being apprehended for crossing the road against a red light, said the SCMP in a separate report.
The woman tried to offer various excuses to the officer, but realizing those would not work, she "laid on the street for 10 minutes, surrounded by a growing crowd," according to the SCMP.
Road injuries are the third top cause of mortality in China, based on The Lancet medical journal.
Officials, meanwhile, are serious in their initiative to check on road violations, particularly jaywalking. Pictures of offenders will be posted regularly every week, police reiterated.
