Beijing's police bureau has formed a new plainclothes squad to crack down on street crime, the Beijing News reported Friday.

Squad members have been mainly selected from sub-bureaus and other departments to work flexible hours as needed.

The move by police chiefs is due to a seasonal peak in street crime, including robbery, shoplifting and theft, during the end of the year.

The new squad has already solved its first case. It took plainclothes officers just five hours to solve a robbery in which a woman's strap satchel was robbed by two men riding on a motorcycle on Dec 4, 2011.