Local criminals have more than 20,000new "moving cops"to worry about,after city police signed a deal with five of Shanghai's most popular taxi companies to turn cabbiessintosinformants.

　　The move is based on the concept that "the police force is limited but the mass has unlimited force,"said Liu Bin of the public transportation branch of the city's Public Security Bureau.

　　The agreement means that nearly half of the taxi drivers in the city are working for the police.

　　"We hit upon the idea in May when we analyzed the cases we cracked,"said Liu."We found taxis are widespread in the city,and drivers have many sources -sometimes criminals use taxis to escape or transport their loot."

　　Under the agreement,anytime a cabbie sees something or somebody suspicious,they will call a police hotline.Police can call the Chinese pagers of the cabbies to ask them to look out for certain individuals during a manhunt.

　　The five companies involved in the program are Dazhong,Qiangsheng,Jinjiang,Bashi and Nonggongshang.