The snowboard police unit is to patrol the Changbai Mountain forest, Xinhua News reported on Monday. Surprising as it may seem, the main purpose of the team is not to promote safety and rescue services for skiers, but to protect the animal and plants in the region from being stolen, the report says.
It is not the only environment-centered police squad that China has set up lately. On January 7 Xinhua News also reported that officials in Beijing have announced a new environmental police squad to root out illegal burning as a step toward tackling the city's long-standing smog problem.
Ski police units already exist in other countries, although they are focused on other goals. For example, in Iran policemen have been patrolling the mountains since December 2015 to prevent “immoral offences” by skiers by enforcing segregation between women and men.
In Georgia the ski patrol simply ensures the safety of tourists in all of the country’s iconic winter resorts. The project was launched in January 2016.
In Vail, Colorado, in the USA, the police department has partnered with the ski area’s operators and volunteered to ski in uniform and help with the occasional problem since the early 2000s.
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