A Heart-warming Checkpoint

By Zhu Gongyun

Zhang Ku, born in May 1970 and a member of the Communist Party of China, now serves as a senior police chief of a checkpoint. He joined the police force in 1989 and has since worked with the Fangshan branch of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau on many posts, from a neighborhood police officer to police station deputy director, from the police station political commissar to checkpoint chief. During his career as a police officer, he has been awarded with many medals of merit and the honorary titles of hero and role model of the national public security system for his personal accomplishments.

The Beijing-Hong Kong-Macau Expressway is one of the busiest thoroughfares into Beijing. Many criminal attempts to sneak into the capital city fail at the Doudian checkpoint.Zhang is the chief of the checkpoint, and he has been guarding the station since its inception. Under his leadership over the past seven years, the police force of the checkpoint has arrested more than 3,200 criminal suspects, seized over 7,600 grams of drugs and more than 8,000 pieces of prohibited items, and lent a helping hand to more passengers than one can count.

These achievements are the result of Zhang's day-today diligence and dedication. He always puts himself into the public's shoes to serve and safeguard passengers, turning what seems to be a simple and dull security check into an inspiring calling and a service that warms the heart of the public.

Guarding the Gateway to Beijing

Zhang Ku has devoted all his efforts to the erection and improvement of the checkpoint, which was initially staffed by only four regular police officers and 20 auxiliary officers.Education of team members, creation of posts, layout of equipment, definition of duties, and logistics support - all these tasks started from scratch, with each one mulled over again and again in his mind. Influenced by his hard work and dedication, the entire staff of the checkpoint also fulfilled their duties with meticulous care. On the principle of warding off the entry of any unsafe factors into Beijing, they worked hard to sharpen their detective eyes, braving the elements and standing the test of pressing, crucial, dangerous tasks.

Regular inspections appear to be simple, but the task involves various efforts to do the work well. It is firstly a major test of physical strength. To verify personal information,check items on board, and perform other duties, every officer has to run up and down the stairs of the checkpoint more than 10,000 times a day. Being on one's feet for long hours without rest has led to various occupational diseases such as lumbar disc herniation, hemorrhoids, and scapulohumeral periarthritis. In addition, the checkpoint is always pervaded by vehicle exhaust emissions, which is worsened by clouds of dust when large vehicles pass by. In this environment, Zhang Ku squeezes into the traffic flow almost every day to ensure the check runs smoothly, leaving his face covered with a layer of dirt and dust after a hectic day. He also gives heed to the mental state of his team. He pays door-to-door visits to every member and has heart-to-heart conversations with them, and has launched a wide variety of activities and advised new diet for a change, in a bid to ensure that everyone on duty is in the very best of spirits, working in a good mood and performing their duties with due diligence.

After the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, the Doudian public security checkpoint gave priority to the control of the pandemic.

How to ensure a safe and smooth traffic flow while protecting the front-line police officers from COVID-19 infection? How to relieve the pressure that the heavy and risky workload put on them and their families? How to ensure sufficient supplies for the entire staff work around the clock? How to deal with routine public affairs while meeting the special needs of passengers? All these issues arose from nowhere and posed an unprecedented challenge to Zhang Ku. To ensure that "every vehicle and person must be inspected,"the checkpoint was confronted with a sharply increased workload, with the police officers exposed to a higher risk of infection.

To guarantee everything went well, he instructed his team members in proper inspection and control on the site every day and racked his brain for the solutions to traffic jam and higher work efficiency. Off duty, he spared no efforts to ensure the availability of enough police force for each shift. To prevent vehicles and passengers from missing inspections, he worked together with his colleagues to identify key hidden dangers lurked in the outer defense line, and optimized the work flow of check and control 18 times. He invited his team members to overhaul the equipment and facilities at the checkpoint.New measures put in place included earlier diversion of traffic flow, separation of cars and trucks onto different lanes, crossdepartmental cooperation, and input of police force in tiers. At the same time, he took the initiative to connect with the Hebei police to carry out regional cooperation and establish a joint inspection mechanism featuring a division of labor for specific duties, information sharing, and emergency response. He also facilitated seamless coordination with transport and health departments in the police force, duties, work flow, measures,publicity, and pandemic prevention, dramatically enhancing their efficiency and capability in inspection and control.

In more than 900 days since the beginning of 2020, the Doudian public security checkpoint has inspected more than 7 million vehicles, delivering outstanding performance with"zero infections""zero errors"and "zero accidents."

Putting people first

Zhang Ku bears no tolerance for criminality, making every conceivable effort to boost his team's competence to detect and crack down on unlawful acts. By contrast, he shows great warmth for passengers, striving to innovate on their work by attending to details and inviting public opinions,turning the checkpoint into a heartwarming service station.

To ease congestion at the checkpoint, Zhang pondered for many days, and found that people are more adept at handling the health code which is more extensively used than the digital travel record. Therefore, they could save time by checking the health code ahead of the travel record. Following this train of thought, he set a police post for vehicle diversion to remind drivers to have their ID cards at hand in advance,separating cars and trucks onto different lanes for inspection,and strengthening the training of security personnel for a good combination of inspection and control. With all those measures in place, Zhang and his team managed to save at least 20 seconds for each vehicle, contributing considerably to their work efficiency. During heavy traffic, an average of more than 10,000 vehicles passed through the checkpoint in five lanes every day, with the total passage time shortened by several hours each day.

In addition to cracking the traffic jam, Zhang Ku also came up with an innovative idea to set up a "green channel"for the convenience of special groups. On April 8, 2020, Beijingbound vehicles reached a traffic peak. There arose the problems of time-consuming information registration and a long queueing. Without any hesitation, Zhang managed to get authorized to take relevant actions. They removed the quarantine facilities at the exit of the expressway and brought the inspection and control site forward by one kilometer. They also set up a "green channel" for passengers back to Beijing,ensuring easy verification of their personal information, and facilitating the return of passengers from Wuhan to Beijing.At the same time, the pressure on the regular channels was alleviated, speeding up the check of vehicles and passengers."Take the G4 expressway, get good service, and go home quickly"were the words circulated in the WeChat group of passengers returning to Beijing.

Since then, the "green channel"at the checkpoint has become an established practice reserved for special groups,enacted over dozens of times.

Around 17:00 on April 22, 2020, a car from Hebei Province had an emergency stop on the expressway 20 meters away from the checkpoint, and a young man jumped off and rushed towards the on-duty police officer Wang Jiyu for help.Wang learned that the 45-day-old baby on board was unable to urinate on its own and had to seek emergency treatment at Beijing Children's Hospital. He soothed the parents while reporting the emergency case to Zhang Ku. Zhang immediately checked the situation and arranged for several policemen to open the "green channel."It took the car merely two minutes to go through all the procedures. "Our calling is to serve the passengers," he said.

There was a heavy flow of Beijing-bound vehicles on the Beijing-Hong Kong-Macau Expressway around midnight on February 9, 2022. At that point, the checkpoint received an emergency report that a high-risk pregnant woman was in urgent need of medical treatment in Beijing, but the slow traffic at the exit of the expressway worried the woman's husband so much that he reached out to the police for help. At this, Zhang and his team immediately dialed the emergency number 120 for an ambulance to wait at the exit of the green channel while quickly spotting the pregnant woman's car and promptly transferring her to the ambulance. The next morning,they received a grateful phone call from the woman's husband:"Many thanks to you! My wife and baby are doing well."

Zhang found that people often sought help at the checkpoint when their cars broke down. He took the situation to heart and purchased some repair tools, medical care instruments, and water dispensers for the convenience of the passengers. Several times Zhang and his team helped passengers address pressing issues, for instance, extinguishing car fires, inflating and repairing tires, making milk powder for babies, and facilitating handover of daily necessities transported to Beijing. They always do their utmost to help the passengers in need.

Zhang Ku made up his mind to serve the people wholeheartedly since his first day on the police force. When he worked as a neighborhood police officer, he visited almost every household in his jurisdiction, acquainting himself with people's living conditions, collecting their opinions,and meeting their needs. With clear targets in work, his performance was always among the best. The number of neighborhoods in his charge grew from one to eight after he got promoted to deputy director of the Changyang township police station. His hands-on experience and strong work ethic of serving residents wholeheartedly as a neighborhood police officer exerted a subtle influence on every police member at the station. He imparted what he learned to his team with patience, talking with them face to face, and visiting the neighborhoods side by side with them. Under his leadership,the Changyang police station excelled in its neighborhood service among all stations in Fangshan District.

In June 2007, a bereaved widow walked into the police station, weeping out her misfortune. She married into a family in Changyang Township of Fangshan District, but unfortunately her husband died in a car accident before she could transfer her permanent residence permit to Beijing,leaving behind a months-old baby without a household registration. The phasing out of the registered residence of her husband made it difficult for her baby to settle down legally. The child was over two years old but unable to attend kindergarten for the lack of a residence permit. "Ease. I'll help you with your issue," Zhang Ku consoled the woman as he listened to her sorrow. After multiple investigations confirmed her situation, Zhang specially reported the case to the superior authorities, gaining a timely permanent residence permit for the kid.

A man of principle, Zhang Ku is public-spirited in his work. Years of devotion to his duty has earned him many great recognition. Under his leadership, the checkpoint has been honored with collective awards many times. In 2020,his team was granted the titles of the national advanced grassroots party organization and national advanced group in fighting COVID-19. In May 2022, the checkpoint was named a"national outstanding public security force".