Parents in Shenyang, capital of Northeast China's Liaoning province, are seeing something new at the local schools this semester - armed police guarding the gates during the mornings and afternoons.

"It makes me feel secure to see the police, because criminals dare not come around," said a woman picking up her 11-year-old grandson at the gate of the Shenyang Railway No 5 Primary School, who would only give her surname as Lin.

Shenyang's public security department launched a campaign this year under which it is dispatching police to the city's 707 primary and middle schools from March to November. Each school has one officer.

The officers will do more than just stand at the school gate to see students arrive or leave safely.

At other times of day, the police will patrol the area that lies 200 meters beyond the schools' boundaries, reduce fire hazards on campus and prepare students for emergencies by organizing drills, according to the city's public security department.

As the streets in school areas are often jammed with traffic, the officers will also be responsible for managing traffic and ensuring that students leave school safely.

Zhang Ying, a traffic police officer in Shenyang, Liaoning province, shows the sign of the school bus to students at the No 9 primary school in the city's Nanjing Street on March 5. Zhao Jingdong / for China Daily