Taipei police reprimanded

The row over the attack on a Taipei police officer by a television producer ended yesterday when Wang Cho-chun (王卓鈞), director of Taipei City Police Headquarters (台北市警局), received one reprimand for poorly supervising the matter.

Hsu Chuan-hsun (許船勳), who is a supervisor of the assaulted police officer, also received one demerit for his handling of the case.

It was also announced that an investigation into the matter had concluded that no influence-peddling had occurred.

Wang announced Hsu's punishment at a press conference held at Taipei City Hall yesterday morning. Wang's punishment was announced in the late afternoon following a final decision by Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).

Speaking for Ma, spokesperson King Pu-tsung (金浦聰) said that the punishments were appropriate.

"Hsu's handling of the case sent out the message that law enforcement officers are authorized to decide whether to investigate an offense against themselves, while in fact it is the duty of their supervisors to decide," King said. "As for Wang, he asked the mayor to decide what punishment to impose upon him [Wang] because he thought he had done a poor job in supervising the entire matter."

King added that the city hoped the police would learn a lesson from the incident and that they would "take advantage of the opportunity to turn their image around."

"The city police have long been criticized for treating people who are cooperative and courteous less favorably than those who are uncooperative and rude. We hope that in the future they'll pay more attention to their attitude while carrying out their duties. They should also know that they have the right not to tolerate any verbal or physical abuse from suspects, whether sober or drunk," he said.

During the morning press conference, Wang said that the report on the investigation into the matter concluded that no high-ranking government officials were involved in influence-peddling in the matter.

The report also showed that the incident took place at 1:16am on Monday when two police officers -- Tseng Chien-ping (曾建平) and Wang Chi-wei (王琪偉) -- were conducting routine roadside spot checks for drunk-driving at the intersection of Nanking East Road and Peining Road in downtown Taipei.

The officers pulled over Chou Chi-wu (周齊吾), who initially refused to have his blood-alcohol level tested. He then engaged in a physical struggle with officer Tseng, during which television producer Teng Yu-kun (鄧育昆) joined the fray, as did four others who got out of another vehicle.

After a three-hour struggle, during which Teng attacked Tseng, at around 4am Chou was handcuffed and taken to the Sungshan Police Precinct for further questioning.