Public asked to name model police officers

BEIJING, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- China's Ministry of Public Security on Wednesday launched a campaign inviting the public to select "Police Heroes in My Heart," and "People-loving Models," among the country's 2 million police officers.

The campaign will run through May and aims to select award winners among a number of institutional and individual candidates recommended by the public. These model police officers will be honored at a national awards ceremony later this year.

National police models are nominated by the ministry once every five years, and this year, the selection will be mainly done online, with the participation of the official websites of the leading Chinese media and several top internet portals, according to the ministry.

Police officers have made great contributions to crackdowns on criminal groups, human traffickers and drug smugglers, while they also played a big role in disaster-relief activities, the ministry said.

Over the past five years, more than 2,230 police officers were killed and over 16,700 wounded while on duty, according to the ministry.