A SHENZHEN policeman has been running a blog on community affairs for over one year, offering important information and safety tips in an easily accessible way, and this has inspired a number of other policemen to start similar blogs.

The blog, which was started in January 2006, is being run by Wu Hongping, a policeman working with the He'ao police station in Longgang District. Entitled "China's first blog on community and police affairs," the blog, located at http://nxwhp.blog.sohu.com, has so far received more than 27,500 visits.

Wu, 33, has been a policeman for 11 years. He was transferred to his present position from Ningxiang County, Hunan Province in April 2004. He is currently in charge of Jinyuan residential community in the district.

The blog offers safety tips, police news, guides to administrative examinations and approval, and police journals. Wu has also posted his office number, QQ messenger ID, and e-mail address on the blog for the convenience of community residents.

Wu said he receives about a dozen enquiries and complaints via e-mail each month, which he said were helpful.

"My personality is trying to do the ordinary things extraordinarily," wrote Wu on his blog. He said community-based police personnel do not always get to solve very exciting cases, but he could at least make sure he did his job properly.

"The blog helps me a lot in communicating with the community residents, and publicizing the police guidelines," said Wu. "I also feel pressured to do things better each time after reading the comments on the blog."

The blog appears to have gone down well with readers. Statements like "Salute to the police" and "You are so great!" often appear in the comments. The residents of the Jinyuan community, especially youngsters, are regular readers of Wu's blog. "We feel much safer with the presence of the blog," wrote a woman surnamed Xiong.

Wu is the first policeman in Shenzhen to start a blog related to police affairs, but he is not the last. Some other policemen in Shenzhen have since followed suit.

Editor: Wing