Policemen of Yunyang People’s Court in Chongqing sign a banner on Nov 24, 2014 to show their loyalty to the Constitution. [Photo/Xinhua]

How should police officers behave in the execution of their duties?

There should be no reason why this is a hot topic for public discourse. If it is, there must be something wrong with the behavior of some police officers when it comes to exercising their powers.

That explains why President Xi Jinping said on Friday that law enforcement must be strictly supervised and the outstanding problems solved so that everyone feels the fairness and justice of the law. The minister of public security reiterated this on the weekend.

Their comments came after video clips went viral last week showing the buttocks of two university students that had been beaten black and blue by police officers.

When the students in Lanzhou, capital of Northwest China's Gansu province, used their phones to video police officers who were using force to detain a suspect, they were themselves brought to a police station where they were severely beaten when they refused to hand over their phones. The police authorities in Lanzhou later admitted that the police officers were indeed to blame for the original incident and the beating of the students.

In another recent incident, a youth who had been detained in custody in Wenzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, in 2015 said in an online post that he was sexually harassed by other detainees and that when he complained a police officer told him that it was natural for such things to happen.

Of course, these bad apples do not represent the entire police force. It is undoubtedly wrong to take it for granted that abuses of police power are prevalent. Yet, the negative impact of the behavior of a few on the image of the police and the public's trust in law enforcement can never be overestimated. So it is of the utmost importance that the top authorities and the Ministry of Public Security rectify the abuse of police power by some police officers.

Those police officers who illegally use violence or are involved in other abuses of police power must receive due punishments according to the law. And there must be enough transparency about how problematic police officers are subjected to the penalties they deserve for what they have done. It is also important to regulate law enforcement by standardizing police procedures.

That is the way not only to put right the behavior of the police but also to win back the needed public trust.