Does dialing 12369 work?

Of course I called, and my colleagues answered. They told me to stop making trouble and handle it myself.

The most recent time was during the Spring Festival when I was on duty. I was naughty and called to check on my colleagues, which disgusted them.

(During the day, the cute girls in the office answer the phone calls, record the calls, fill them out on the call reception form and hand them over to the colleagues in charge of the area to handle. At night, the rough guys like us answer the calls. If there is a problem that needs to be handled immediately, we will bring another rough guy to handle it directly on the spot.)

We will respond to any inquiries, but first we need to clarify the scope of our law enforcement jurisdiction, which is for-profit enterprises and institutions, and the water, air, noise, and slag generated by production and operation. (Residential garbage is under the jurisdiction of the Urban Management Bureau, and we have no control over the square dance aunties, so please don't report to us to complain about the noise of the square dance aunties)

However, the focus of our work is indeed on industrial and mining enterprises. Except for large ones, there are not too many demands on small and medium-sized tertiary service enterprises unless there are reports from the masses... because there is really not enough energy.

Our principle of return visits is to handle the case within seven working days and give the complainant a response and handling opinions. Of course, the time limit may be exceeded when we are too busy. However, if it is within our authority and we do not respond or handle it, if the time limit is exceeded, we can report it to the local Commission for Discipline Inspection, Supervision Bureau, and Procuratorate. Last year, we reported a case where the Environmental Protection Bureau did not take action on the punishment result and was handled by the Procuratorate.

In addition, 12369 is an anonymous number. We cannot see your caller ID when we answer the call, so if you want to reply, you must leave us your number on the phone so that we can contact you when we arrive at the scene to understand the situation and give you feedback. We are also obliged to keep your personal information confidential. (In addition, some students support that the call is not anonymous. I think it is possible. Tsk tsk, our system still has a long way to go)

In addition to 12369, you can also call the higher-level environmental protection department, local and higher-level government mailboxes, such as the mailboxes of the county magistrate, mayor, and governor, the Letters and Calls Bureau, the higher-level environmental protection department or the government secretariat, the Supervision Bureau, and the Letters and Calls Bureau. They will send us documents in the form of supervision and time-limited processing, requiring us to handle them and respond to our opinions.

In addition, for serious environmental pollution problems, you can also file a lawsuit in the environmental protection court of the court. You can consult a lawyer for details. However, it is recommended to contact the environmental protection department first, because it costs money to go to court to sue, but it does not cost money for us to handle it. Moreover, if the problem is serious, we can file a lawsuit and enforce it, which is more powerful than citizens filing a lawsuit themselves, and it does not cost citizens money.

Many students pointed out that when they called 12369, no one answered, or the calls were evasive, perfunctory, unresolved, or unreplying. I believe this is true.

China is too big. Whether it is the supervisory force (the number of supervisory teams in front-line districts and counties ranges from a few hundred to a few people), the intensity of supervision, or the efficiency of work execution, etc., it is impossible for all the environmental protection bureaus you meet across the country to have the same style. For example, I know that some regions do much better than us, and I also know that some regions... I don't want to mention them.

Even if you meet different people, the difference will be completely different, right?

Our work process is basically to receive visits. There are superior environmental protection departments to receive visits, and the various county heads, mayors, and provincial governors of the government have their mailboxes transferred and supervised by the secretariat or the supervision bureau in the form of documents. The petition bureau transfers to us, and the lower-level towns and villages receive complaints and report to us. Written letters are mailed, and 12369 reception forms are handed over to us. Finally, the masses come directly to the office to complain and report.

After receiving complaints and reports, a large part of our work time is the same as when we call the police. The first thing we do is to investigate, determine whether the complaint is true, make a record, and if the report is true, collect evidence. Depending on the situation, we will take verbal measures to stop it (such as construction noise at night), or issue enforcement documents, go back to file a case for punishment, or organize the information and report it to the government for comprehensive processing, or report it to the environmental protection department for processing... Finally, the results of the processing will be reported to the complainant and the higher-level department, and the information will be organized, summarized, archived, and kept for future reference.

Complaints and reports forwarded by higher-level environmental protection departments, mailboxes of local chief executives at all levels, and letters and visits bureaus are all issued in the form of paper documents, so they must be processed and responded to 100%, but the cycle is the longest, ranging from a week to one or two months.

Complaints and reports made through 12369 or in person at the office have the shortest processing time, and can be resolved in as little as half a day or the same day, or as little as seven days. However, whether the case is handled or not, and whether there is shirking of responsibility or failure to perform duties is another matter.

However, if you face complaints directly against the Environmental Monitoring Team and the other party fails to perform their duties or shirks their responsibilities, you can record a telephone call to report the complaint to the local Commission for Discipline Inspection, Supervision Bureau, or Procuratorate, which is useful.

Most pollution situations can be dealt with directly, some can be handled through mediation and bargaining, and some can be dealt with with a sigh.

In addition, some people asked whether complaints and reports require evidence. The answer is no. After we receive complaints and reports, we will investigate and collect evidence. If sampling is necessary, it will be done by qualified environmental monitoring personnel. The samples taken by the public are not qualified as evidence. The only thing that can help us is taking photos and videos, because many companies' pollution discharge, illegal discharge, and leakage are immediate. Many times we feel that the company has stopped or completed the pollution discharge, and we have difficulty in collecting evidence. Afterwards, we can only rely on a large amount of other supporting evidence. If there is audio and video footage at the time, it will be much more powerful, simple and intuitive.

Finally, my conclusion is: Is it effective to call the environmental protection hotline 12369 to report complaints?

Answer: It may not be completely effective, but if you don’t fight, it will definitely not work.

There is still a long way to go in building a legal system.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.