When you come to Zigong Xianshi Ancient Town, you will see such a group of people. During holidays, they travel in small groups in the streets and alleys, accepting tourists' consultations and maintaining traffic; every time it is time to go to and from school, they disperse to the gates of primary and secondary schools to escort children to cross the road safely and go to and from school safely; whenever necessary, they will also assist the police station to complete household registration related work… This group of people has a common name – "Light City Vigilantes".
In recent years, the Yantan Branch of the Zigong Municipal Public Security Bureau has actively explored the construction of a "Dengcheng Volunteer Police" mass prevention and control team, proactively responded to the basic and source problems that plagued grassroots policing, used unlimited civilian power to break the bottleneck of limited police force, and continued to build a new grassroots governance pattern of "10,000 police officers to promote deep cultivation".
A stay-at-home mother enjoys being a "Light City vigilante", assisting in school care and patrols
Her name is Zhang Yan, 36 years old, from Xianshi Town, Yantan District. Two years ago, in order to better take care of her 13-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son, Zhang Yan chose to go home and become a full-time mother.
For Zhang Yan, who has no hobbies, the life of raising a child is inevitably a bit boring. On the recommendation of a friend, in September 2023, Zhang Yan joined the Dengcheng Volunteer Police, a public welfare organization initiated and established by the local public security agency, and became a "Dengcheng Volunteer Police" in Xianshi Ancient Town.
“My understanding of the so-called vigilantes is voluntary police service.” Zhang Yan said that on weekdays, the police station will release event information through the WeChat applet, such as when and where there are large-scale events, how many vigilantes are needed to help maintain on-site order and traffic order, or how many vigilantes are needed to assist in night patrols during holidays, etc.
After seeing the information, the vigilantes can choose to participate or not according to their own schedule. For vigilantes who participate in and complete tasks, the administrator will reward them with certain points in the system. The reward points will be accumulated in the personal account. When a certain amount of points is reached, the vigilante can use the points to exchange for products of equal proportion in the designated supermarket in the jurisdiction. Currently, 1 point = 0.5 yuan.
From September last year to April this year, Zhang Yan participated in various tasks such as patrolling, duty, and household registration information released by the police station 67 times, accumulating 5,986 points. The number of tasks he completed and the points he accumulated ranked first among the more than 200 volunteer policemen in his jurisdiction.
Zhang Yan admitted that it doesn't matter how many points she has accumulated or how much money she can exchange for goods. What matters is that she enjoys the sense of accomplishment of participating in charity, serving the society, and contributing to society as a volunteer.
Zhang Yan said that as a full-time mother, she used her spare time to participate in volunteer activities. On the one hand, she enriched her life. On the other hand, she could tell her children about her experience in participating in the activities. She also used her weekend time to take her children to participate, so that they could also experience the joy of doing charity.
By becoming a vigilante, Zhang Yan's thinking also changed. "The mentality becomes calmer, the relationship between neighbors can be better handled, the relationship with others can be better, and the person can be more proactive in helping others," Zhang Yan said.
Regarding the use of points, Zhang Yan said: "It must be used meaningfully." In addition to exchanging daily firewood, rice, oil and salt, she will use most of the points to motivate her children. She also implements a points reward system at home, encouraging her children to earn points in exchange for gifts by doing housework, doing good deeds, doing charity, etc., so that her children can finally feel and understand through their own actions.
Assisted in 186 regular police release tasks
As the vigilante administrator of the Xianshi area, Zhu Zhiwei, the auxiliary police officer of the Xianshi Police Station, told reporters that as of now, the Xianshi Police Station has 244 registered vigilantes, including more than 20 activists. In terms of age group, most of them are between 30 and 50 years old, and there are more women.
Zhu Zhiwei introduced that the main tasks of the volunteer police are five words: "collecting, arranging, preventing, transforming and serving", that is, assisting the public security organs to register relevant information, patrol communities, protect schools and gardens, protect rivers and fisheries, and mediate disputes. They can effectively collect and report various risks and hazards, promote more stable social security and more harmonious social relations, and relieve the pressure of insufficient police force to a certain extent, allowing the civilian auxiliary police to have more energy to focus on more important police work.
"Our vigilantes play a very important role in ordering the flow of people and vehicles outside the Zigong Lantern Festival." Zhu Zhiwei said, taking this year's Zigong Lantern Festival as an example, the arrival of many tourists during the Spring Festival brought pressure to the police station in the area due to heavy traffic and police calls. In order to organize traffic well, the police station issued the tasks to the vigilantes through a small program to maintain the order of the lantern festival and serve the tourists watching the lanterns. 20-30 volunteers are recruited each time, from 6 pm to 11:30 pm, and their tasks are to participate in patrols outside the park and maintain order in and out of the park.
Zhu Zhiwei introduced that in order to promote the construction of volunteer police, the higher-level public security organs have adopted a points reward system, that is, points are awarded based on the number of services and service quality of the volunteers. Volunteers can exchange points for physical goods at offline contracted service outlets, and can also use points to offset the expenses of catering, accommodation, learning and training, entertainment consumption, etc., so that the volunteers can be recognized for their responsibilities and rewarded for their dedication, thus serving as an incentive.
According to preliminary statistics, from March last year to April this year, the Xianshi vigilantes issued a total of 186 tasks, with a total of 2,825 people participating, and 30,971 points issued.
In order to promote the healthy and orderly development of the volunteer group and play a greater role, Yantan has also carried out activities to evaluate star-rated volunteers. At the same time, it coordinates with relevant district departments to implement preferential policies for outstanding volunteers such as employment, children's education, assistance and assistance, and further broadens the policy support and results application of the volunteer reward mechanism. (Xu Ziyuan)
