Advanced Search

The story appears on

Page A4

October 28, 2014

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » Metro » Society

Taking a scientific approach to solving city crime

By Ke Jiayun | October 28, 2014, Tuesday | Print Edition

IN crime novels, police detectives often solve mysteries by intuition. Zhang Baofa would say that’s pretty fanciful fiction.

Zhang, 58, is the chief officer of the Technical Investigation Department of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau. It’s his job to use scientific and technological methods to search for clues, identify suspects and arrest perpetrators.

In Zhang’s 25-year technical investigation career, he and his team have been involved in many high-profile cases, including the hammer assaults and robberies of 14 women in 1997, the Juneyao milk poisoning case in 2000 and an international diamond theft in 2004.

“No matter how clever a criminal thinks he is or how meticulous he is to conceal his actions, there is always some clue left behind,” Zhang said.

He works in a murky world where little can be said about the details of cases handled.

“On the very first day I went to work for the technical team, my supervisor told me that we technical investigation officers had to keep secrets until our last breath,” Zhang said.

His first big case came in 1997 when 14 Shanghai women were assaulted with hammer blows to the head and then robbed, among whom two died. The city was gripped with fear. Women were afraid to walk in the streets.

“My daughter even told me that her teacher instruct students not to walk home alone for fear of encountering the hammer man,” Zhang said.

At that time, there were no computers or surveillance cameras to help police find the assailant. Progress stalled. The investigation was suspended for a time, but Zhang refused to let the case go. He visited the crime scenes several times, looking for anything that might have been missed. He read and re-read the evidence files and witness inquiry record.

And there it was. A tiny detail in a victim’s statement. One of the women reported that she was carrying a newly bought beeper in the purse the hammer man had grabbed.

“A beeper at that time was just like an iPhone is today,” Zhang said. “It was valuable. So I considered the possibility that the robber might not throw it away. He might even test it to see if it was still live.”

Zhang traced the beeper and found that one call had been made on it after the attack. He called the number back. It later turned out to be the phone number of the robber’s neighbor, which eventually led police to the culprit.

“Tracing a number back then wasn’t easy, but I persevered,” he said.

The case is now included as a textbook example for newly enrolled officers.

Zhang and his team have completed nearly 100 science and technology projects that can be used in solving crimes. Many of them are now used nationwide.

Earlier this year, the team’s “big data” policing system was used in a citywide theft crackdown in the run-up to an international conference held in Shanghai.

Zhang’s consummate dedication to his work has been hard on his family. He’s often gone for hours on end, failing to show up for meals or even bedtimes.

“He is always thinking about his cases,” said his wife Li Naijun. “Even when he’s lying in bed. What I worry about most is his health.

He was once hospitalized because of overwork, but after he was discharged from hospital, he went straight back to the office,” Li told Shanghai Daily.

MetroSociety


 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend