Legal experts have urged the authorities to stop evaluating law enforcement by the number of cases they handle.

Under the current appraisal system of law enforcement in China, performance is evaluated on the number of criminal cases solved and the number of suspects detained or prosecuted.

The current evaluation system encourages officers to use any means necessary, some of which may be illegal, to inflate arrest and conviction numbers, said Zhao Bingzhi, dean of the College for Criminal Law Science at Beijing Normal University.

Zhao has called for the establishment of an alternative system. The pursuit of filling "quotas" has also been criticized by the Party's top legal authority.

"Regardless of whether (officers) are in service, retired or have left the police force, those whose actions have resulted in unfair or wrongful judgments must be held accountable," said Liu Liwei, head of the Zhejiang Provincial Public Security Department.

Chen Weidong, a professor at the Law School of Renmin University of China, said lifelong accountability will make law enforcers more meticulous in their investigations.

- Wang Zhenghua

(China Daily USA 08/15/2013 page6)