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Police Brutality during Interrogations Declined 87 Percent

State media are reporting that, according to the Ministry of Public Security statistics, brutality against suspects during police interrogations has declined by 87 percent. Guo Shengkun, the Minister of Public Security, said “Over 90 percent of the police stations have completed upgrading the functional areas. Case handling, reception, office work, and living quarters are now in separated areas. The case-handling area has installed electronic surveillance. All suspects are now handled in the case-handling area and the entire interrogation of suspects is now videotaped.” “According to the Ministry of Public Security, brutality against suspects during police interrogation has declined by 87 percent.”

Numerous comments have been posted online.

“How did they know the number of interrogations in which police used brutal methods to extract confessions? Did they count and keep records on these abuses?”

“The report is untrue. A lot of incidents are not recorded.”

“Ah. Now I know. It used to be 100 percent.”

“Isn’t it true that the law prohibits the use of brutality to extract confessions? How come they now say that such brutality has declined? I am lost.”

“So in 17 percent of the cases, the police still beat people up to get a confession?”

Sources:
People’s Daily, June 27, 2013
http://politics.people.com.cn/n/2013/0627/c1001-21985534.html
Sina.com blog
http://comment5.news.sina.com.cn/comment/skin/default.html?channel=gn&newsid=1-1-27513471