Beijing officially issued a set of regulations to supervise the traffic control assistants Thursday.
  
The regulations nail down the hiring procedures, work assessment, education and training, uniform and equipment and the responsibilities of the traffic control assistants.
  
The regulations also define the qualities that the assistants should possess and clearly enumerate the forbidden deeds.
  
Zhang Chengjun, an official with the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, said the set of regulation is a comprehensive version of the more than 20 laws and rules concerning the traffic control assistants issued before.
  
Zhang said Beijing's police force are insufficient for the city's traffic control, which grows heavier and heavier.
  
In 1998, the municipal public security bureau hired the first batch of traffic control assistants, who help the traffic police to deal with the traffic of bicycles and pedestrians.
  
Beijing has 3180 traffic control assistants today, mainly coming from the laid-off workers, veterans and security personnel.
  
They helped to solve nearly 9 million traffic cases, trivial or important, last year.
  
Yet the municipal public security bureau received a number of citizens' complaints about the assistants for their "disrepute deeds," said the official.
  
Zhang said hopefully the regulations will curb their improper behaviors.

(Xinhua News Agency July 8, 2005)