A hero to all but himself

Hou secured the release of McGill Alexander and his daughter and helped set the stage for the end of the affair. After the rescue, the hostage crisis concluded fairly smoothly, though it dragged on for a considerable time. Chen was allowed to see his wife and Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), current DPP chairman and Kaohsiung mayor and a lawyer at the time. Eventually, after 20 hours, Chen surrendered.

Putting the matter in historical perspective, Hou said: "Before this case, Taiwan police never had a situation involving hostages and negotiations."

He went on to point out the various problems of the crisis, including the bedlam at the scene, the involvement of the media, the telephone interviews Chen gave to radio and TV stations for most of the night, the crowds of reporters and photographers that blocked access to ambulances.

Once Chen was incarcerated, preventing a repeat of these problems became a paramount concern for Hou and Taiwan's police administration. The result, said Hou, was the establishment of a hostage crisis unit established as part of the CIB. The unit's foundations were laid with visits by Hou and other officials to the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) in the US. From the FBI's basic model, new protocols and procedures were developed. According to the new system, responsibility at the crime scene is distributed among trained specialists, including an officer in charge of controlling the scene, primary and secondary negotiators, a media spokesman, and a rescue team.

Hou says the Chen affair left an indelible mark not only on the police, but on society as a whole. It marked the point at which Taiwan came face to face with the dark side of its post-martial law freedoms.

"Taiwan had never encountered a criminal and sexual offender like Chen Chin-hsing," he said.

Many saw crime in 1997 -- exemplified by the Pai murder, the hostage crisis, and a string of other atrocities carried out by Chen between these events -- as irrefutable evidence of major social decay in Taiwan. "[The Chen affair] attracted the attention of the entire nation, and everyone watched it like a drama," said Hou. "In this case, each and every member of the populace felt like they had played their own roles."