Yinchuan believes that the hotline will help gauge the mood of its 2.2 million residents ReutersA Chinese city is recording the moods of locals who make complaints in the hope of catching public grievances early enough to prevent them spiralling into violence. Operators staffing a municipal complaints hotline in the northwestern city of Yinchuan are required to categorise callers’ moods as “calm”, “depressed”, “agitated” and “out of control” in their notes, with the data analysed by the city authority. Part of the project is designed to try and detect potential threats. In the past decade there have been several knife attacks on schoolchildren by people said to have been mentally ill or holding grudges against society. In some cases the perpetrators had tried to lodge grievances with local authorities but felt ignored before they resorted to violence.

Source: The Times September 01, 2017 11:03 UTC