Beijing has established an environmental law enforcement team that has been dubbed the "environmental protection police".

This year is the last year of Beijing's Clean Air Action Plan (2013-17), and the forming of an environmental protection police team is a significant measure to enhance law enforcement in the environmental protection field.

The duties and responsibilities of the environmental protection police are significant, sensitive or inter-regional law enforcement in the field of environmental protection, including investigation and bringing to court key environmental protection cases, as well as cooperating with the relevant administrative law enforcement organs to launch joint law enforcement actions.

The environmental protection police will first cooperate with other environmental inspection and protection authorities to fight environmental crimes. In the next stage, they will cooperate with procuratorial organs on pollution cases and public interest litigation to protect the environment.

The special law enforcement team for environmental protection and the mechanism of jointly handling cases among various administrative organs is aimed at more effectively fighting against environmental crimes.

All the officers of the environmental protection police team are experienced policemen from various units of the Beijing public security bureau. On the first day that the team was established, it uncovered two environmental pollution cases based on the clues provided by the environmental protection authorities and arrested two criminal suspects.