Outside of the countryside and small towns, "forced confessions" are already rare. As a police detective for several years in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, I can honestly say that my colleagues and I are inexperienced in forcing confessions from suspects.

No matter how big the pressure to get results is, any policeman in my bureau would rather "send a tiger back to the mountains" when there is insufficient evidence, rather than torture suspects into a confession. Verbally insulting suspects or tricking them into admitting a crime has largely decreased too, not to mention beating them for confessions.

This is partially a result of supervision. In backwater regions of China, there are blind spots where cameras do not cover in detention houses or jails. But in the place where I work, cameras are everywhere. Who would beat a suspect under the electronic eye?

On the other hand, the quality of the grass-roots law enforcement team has generally enhanced. Some police officers in my bureau have been informed by the procurators attached to the station that they have mishandled a case. But it's rare that they're caught beating suspects and extort confessions.

Nowadays in criminal cases, it's not uncommon that no confession is acquired. Wuhu's trial scheme to allow suspects to lie is actually not a new thing. We pay more efforts to finding objective evidence, like surveillance tapes and witnesses' testimony. When the external evidence is sufficient, whether the suspects lie or not does not change the fact that a crime has been committed.

Lies from suspects are nothing terrible. What disturb us most are confessions that are half true and half false, which will further complicate the whole case.

The days when suspects' confessions were seen as the most important part of settling a case are gone. Admittedly, China hasn't reached the stage where objective evidence is absolutely prioritized, but it has already reached a transformative period.

Suspects also know about the consequences of fake confessions. Once enough evidence is found by the police, false confessions will only put them in a more unfavorable position.

Wuhu's trial measure also includes encouraging criminal suspects to make complaints about the police officers who deal with their case. This is certainly new.

At my bureau, few suspects now make complaints to the procurators attached to our station. I believe there are few cases in which suspects are wrongly charged and sentenced.

With the new channels, more suspects will certainly file complaints, and police officers will face more internal inquiries.

I would suggest the standardization of the complaints system. The right to complain about the police should become an effective tool which really helps safeguard suspects' rights.

The police officers at my bureau who deal with civilian disputes are frequently complained about by people via the 110 hotline, and many of these are just unreasonable complaints without any evidence.

The relationship between police officers and suspects is complicated. The legal responsibilities for unreasonable complaints should also be clarified.

The article was compiled by Global Times reporter Chen Chenchen based on an interview with Shen Jie, a police detective in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. chenchenchen@globaltimes.com.cn