Chinese police patrol Venice to aid tourists

VENICE has for the first time invited Chinese police officers to patrol its canal banks and winding alleyways, in a bid to stop tourists from the country falling prey to thieves.

Two Chinese officers – one from Shanghai, the other from Beijing – will spend the next three weeks conducting joint patrols in the lagoon city with their Italian counterparts. Unlike the Italian police, the Chinese officers will be unarmed.

The unusual sight of officers from the People’s Republic attracted crowds of selfie-snapping tourists when they appeared in St Mark’s Square and on a police launch on the Grand Canal on Wednesday.

Their role is to help the growing number of Chinese tourists who descend on Venice, whose lack of Italian or English means they are often vulnerable to being ripped off, especially in over-priced restaurants. “They will assist the large number of tourists from China in any dealings with the local authorities,” the Carabinieri, Italy’s military police force, said.

“This project is very important for us, and we are very happy to have this opportunity, in such a beautiful city,” one of the police officers told La Nuova Venezia, a local newspaper.

Around three million Chinese tourists visit Italy each year.

It is the first time that Chinese police officers have been deployed on the beat in Venice, but not the first time that they have been tried in Italy.

In 2016 and 2017, Chinese officers took to the streets of Milan and Rome in similar joint patrols, liaising between the Italian police and Chinese visitors. They will do so again this year. A similar scheme was trialled in Paris in 2014.

Chinese police will also be deployed this year to the city of Prato in Tuscany, a major textile-producing hub that has a large Chinese population.