For more than 10 years since the police, there has been no error and no complaint in inspection and identification, and more than 10 minor innovations and micro transformations have played a major role in criminal investigation. His battlefield is a laboratory, and his weapons are test materials, reagents, instruments, bottles and jars. The goal is to decode the password of poison, and let the real murderer show his true shape in a silent place. Xu Fangmin, a police officer of the Technical Squadron of the Criminal Police Brigade of Jiangyin Public Security Bureau, Jiangsu Province, is such a "poison code breaker".

"Look at any task with the eyes of research and learning, treat every link with the attitude of service and practice, and promote every work with the attitude of innovation and exploration." Xu Fangmin won the National May Day Labor Medal this year by virtue of hard work, silent perseverance, and doing ordinary and simple things well.

Zero error in identification of more than 20000 cases handled

The main responsibility of the physical and chemical inspection of the public security department is to use professional knowledge such as pharmacy and laboratory science to conduct qualitative analysis and comparative inspection of trace physical evidence. Xu Fangmin knows that this requires 100% preciseness and accuracy. He is good at finding a breakthrough from the small.

On the New Year's Eve in 2021, people were immersed in the festive atmosphere of saying goodbye to the old and ushering in the new. An abnormal death occurred in a peach garden in Jiangyin. The deceased showed poisoning characteristics, and the time was about two hours after dinner. Where did the poison come from? If it is ingested through food, the time of death does not match, and the investigation is temporarily blocked.

The case was serious, and Xu Fangmin volunteered. Focusing on the cause of poisoning, he carried out inspection in the order of key points first and then general according to the location and suspicious situation of nearly 100 samples of inspection materials collected on the site. After several days of continuous fighting, toxic substances were finally found in the remaining drinks drunk by the deceased, which confirmed that the abnormal death case was a disguised poisoning murder case.

Fine analysis, careful reasoning, accurate judgment and hard verification constitute the normal state of Xu Fangmin's work.

Over the years, Xu Fangmin has successively participated in the examination of more than 20000 cases and handled more than 40000 materials, achieving zero error and zero complaint, providing timely and accurate scientific evidence for case characterization, case solving and litigation, and playing an important role in criminal investigation technology.

In recent years, Xu Fangmin has focused on the hot and difficult issues in the daily inspection work, thought deeply, and wrote more than 10 academic papers which have been included and published in Chinese and English professional journals such as Criminal Technology. At the same time, he was invited to serve as the reviewer of English SCI journals with his profound theoretical foundation.

10 years of unremitting efforts to fill a domestic gap

In 2023, a Public Security Industry Standard of the People's Republic of China, which was formulated under the leadership of the county level public security organ for the first time, was promulgated and implemented, providing theoretical guidance and practical basis for the national public security organ to study whether fish deaths are related to artificial poisoning. The standard was formulated by Xu Fangmin's team.

However, for this day, Xu Fangmin and his team have persisted for 10 years.

Jiangnan has a dense water network and developed aquaculture. In 2012, Xu Fangmin encountered such an event: a large number of fish bred by a farmer died, but due to the lack of corresponding standard methods in China at that time, it was impossible to judge whether it was caused by artificial poisoning.

"If there is technology to analyze poisons in fish pond water, the rights and interests of the masses can be guaranteed." Since then, Xu Fangmin and his colleagues have devoted their spare time to research on the extraction and inspection technology of related poisons in such cases (incidents), recording the changes of different kinds of poisons in water every day. They study while summarizing while practicing, and their increasingly mature and systematic theoretical achievements have attracted attention in the industry. In 2019, the research results of this project were approved by the Ministry of Public Security's Public Security Science and Technology Achievement Promotion and Guidance Plan, and were popularized in the national public security organs, effectively filling the domestic gap.

"Criminal technology requires all services and innovation to promote practical combat." Xu Fangmin said so and did the same.

In recent years, Xu Fangmin has been responsible for participating in and completing 6 criminal technology innovation projects. Jiangyin Public Security Bureau has established a studio named after him.

Toxic and harmful reagents need to be used when extracting poisons. Manual operation is time-consuming and laborious, and automatic equipment is expensive. A large number of criminal investigation practices have made Xu Fangmin really feel the pain points and difficulties in the current criminal technology identification. Relying on the physical and chemical laboratory of Jiangyin Public Security Bureau, Xu Fangmin took the lead in setting up a project team to tackle the problem of efficient extraction technology of poisons, improve the automatic equipment for the extraction of poisons, realize the high-throughput and automation of the extraction of poisons in biological samples, and greatly improve the efficiency and accuracy of the detection of poisons.

"Xu Fangmin's research and efforts have actually driven other colleagues. The five person elite team in his studio has kept pace with the times, broken through ourselves, and improved our efficiency in handling cases." Bian Xiaoyang, deputy leader of the Criminal Police Brigade of Jiangyin Public Security Bureau, said.

"National first" innovation breakthrough is endless

As the only target of the sixth phase of the "333 High level Talents Training Project" in Jiangsu Province of Wuxi Public Security, Xu Fangmin's characteristics of being good at research, observant and brave in tackling key problems impressed his peers.

The daily work of the laboratory is very busy, and food poisoning events, drugs, new psychoactive substances, and poison detection in decayed bodies need to be handled one by one. However, Xu Fangmin always finds time to concentrate on research, and promotes criminal investigation with innovation.

In November 2018, Xu Fangmin accepted a case of manufacturing and selling "twigs" of new drugs. By modifying the drug structure, the lawless elements make it become a new kind of confusing substance. After consulting the literature, Xu Fangmin formulated a targeted inspection plan. Xu Fangmin successfully detected the latest listed new drugs, which became the first case of trafficking in new drugs "twigs" in Jiangsu Province sentenced. Since then, he has deepened his research on new drugs and won the first and second prizes in the national public security system drug analysis skills assessment in 2023.

On August 22, 2023, the finals of the national technical innovation and practical police equipment competition at the grass-roots level of public security began in Dalian. The Wuxi public security team, mainly Xu Fangmin, brought the project of efficient extraction technology of poisons, and won the first prize with the highest score of 93.23 points, setting the best record in the history of Wuxi public security system.

"Although it is not as thrilling as the pursuit and capture of fugitives, I always have unlimited love for criminal science and technology."

As a criminal police officer, Xu Fangmin never forgets his original intention. He sticks to his post and innovates his ideas, so that traditional criminal science and technology can glow new brilliance in the new era.

(Jiangsu Workers Daily reporter Li Yao)