Chinese law enforcement agencies Tuesday launched an upgraded version of its national gang crime informant platform.

The public can provide leads on gang crimes via various online channels, including the official website of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the Communist Party of China Central Committee as well as its official WeChat and Weibo accounts, said Chen Yixin, a senior official with the commission and head of the national office against organized crime, at a press conference.

According to Chen, the upgraded platform utilizes big data, model analysis and cloud computing, among other digital methods, allowing the platform to compare the information of suspects, cases and key areas of the crackdown.

As the crackdown goes wider and deeper, some places lack clues on whitewashed and undiscovered gang crime, while others are short of in-depth investigations for the large amount of leads. The establishment of the upgraded platform aims to meet the new needs of China's crackdown on gangs and organized crimes, according to Chen.

The platform increases mass participation by offering easy accesses on smartphones and computers, as well as detailed instructions and simplified reporting procedures for the public to provide leads, Chen said.

Citizens only need to provide basic information on the gang crime they want to report via the platform, which takes about three minutes, said Wang Hongxiang, a senior official with the commission and deputy head of the national office, at the press conference.

Measures will be taken to prevent relevant information from being leaked, he added.

The platform also enhances accuracy of crackdown by generating submitted clues and automatically processing data, which allows authorities in charge of the gang crime crackdown to better manage and deal with relevant cases and clues, Chen said.

The informants will receive a unique code for each lead they report, with which they can check progress or results online, Wang said, adding that authorities should contact informants who leave their names or contacts within 30 days of their leads being received.

The platform can not only dynamically monitor the process of cases and the movement of vicious gangs but also summarize rules with big data to strengthen the continuity of the crackdown, Chen said.

The original report platform was set up in February 2018 amidst China's increased efforts to crack down on gang crime.

As of March 31, the platform had received more than 190,000 leads on gang crime, from letters and phone calls.