Cartoon images of the citizen crime-busters designed by the Beijing police in 2015

BEIJING, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Beijing police have developed a smart phone app to further tap the potential of citizens volunteering to bust crimes, jokingly known as the world's 5th intelligence group after the United States' CIA, the Soviet-era KGB, Israel's Mossad and Britain's MI6.

The app, named "Chaoyangqunzhong HD" and available for free in the Apple store, encourages citizens to anonymously provide tip-offs and upload photos and videos related to all kinds of violations of rules and laws. Users can also check on the progress of their reported cases.

Chaoyangqunzhong, which literally refers to citizens living in Chaoyang District in Beijing, is a well-known code phrase in China for those righteous citizens, or "public security volunteers", who pay attention to suspicious events or people in their communities and closely cooperate with local police to bust crimes.

This group gained much fame on social media for the past two or three years for their tip-offs that led to a dozen of high-profile arrests of celebrities involved in drug and prostitution cases.