For Pan Dongmei, urban management and law enforcement is more than just keeping communities safe, clean and orderly. Her job with the department also involves being sensitive to the public and their individual perceptions of what’s right and wrong.
Pan, 33, is captain of a 12-member, all-female team of front-line enforcement officials in Lujiazui of the Pudong New Area in S?anghai, China.
The team’s jurisdiction covers nine office buildings, about 30 businesses, construction sites and residential complexes along a 6-kilometer riverfront area of Pudong. The members average 30 years in age and all have bachelor’s degrees. Three hold postgraduate degrees.
Urban management and enforcement officials are an often-vilified group because of the work they do. Some see them as spoilsports.
They close down illegal street vendors, dismantle unauthorized structures in apartment blocks, appear on the scene if your neighbor complains that you are making too much noise, prevent people from storing their junk in public spaces, halt garbage-sorting irregularities and confiscate illegal flyers.
Their duties keep expanding and now cover more than 1,000 law-enforcement matters. They must protect greenery and waterways in their designated area. Keep traffic flowing and monitor construction sites. Ensure that public sanitation is enforced and look out for illegal taxi drivers.
They also stop illegal fishing, street begging, unlawful parking of shared bikes and profiteers in the captive animal business.
The team was established in October 2017.
Pan has been a law enforcement official for eight years. She and her colleagues regularly patrol the bank eastern of the Huangpu River no matter what the weather. The area has large numbers of out-of-town visitors.
“The aim is to set a model example of law enforcement, and female officers are often capable of friendly persuasion, ” Pan said. “We also tend to be more careful in how laws are enforced. We aim for urban management as meticulous and precise as an embroidery needle.”
Pan said she wants to rid the public of misconceptions.
“Many residents are not clear about the work of urban management, she said. They believe it is just stopping street vendors. That is wrong. They have a stereotyped, sometimes negative impression of what we do, and we want to change that.”
For example, to help businesses engaging in incorrect garbage sorting, Pan and her colleagues make repeated visits, bringing garbage-bin tags and help paste them on bins. They exercise patience as they dispense information.
2020 © Shanghai Daily