Taipei City Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
"Although the city government is experiencing financial difficulties, we'll start allocating funds this year if there's any leftover money. If not, we'll start doing it the following fiscal year," Ma said.
Ma made the promise on the council floor yesterday in response to a request by KMT City Councilor Chen Cheng-chung (
Chen cited two recent polls to indicate that both city residents and municipal law enforcement officers were in favor of the surveillance cameras and patrol teams.
"About 90 percent of the approximately 3,000 city residents polled between May 23 and May 28 agreed that 24-hour surveillance cameras would help improve public security, and over 87 percent said that community patrol teams may also do so," Chen said.
The survey, conducted by Chen's office, also showed that the three aspects of city affairs that concern city residents the most are public security, the economy and education.
The other poll, which questioned 208 law enforcement officers from the city's 14 police precincts during May 25 and May 28, also indicated that over 97 percent of the officers surveyed agreed that surveillance cameras help to improve public security. In addition, more than 91 percent said that community patrol teams may accomplish the same goal.
In addition, 75 percent of the officers polled said that the city should allocate budgets to set up more surveillance cameras, and about 70 percent said that it should do so to form more community patrol teams.
Another KMT city councilor, Chen Yun-te (
"Police records show that they help solve 62 percent of thefts, which are voted the most detested crimes by city residents," he said.
"In addition, only 217 out of the city's 435 boroughs have patrol teams."
According to Chen Yun-te, about 90 percent of borough wardens are in favor of surveillance cameras being mounted in their neighborhoods, but about 44 percent of the city's 435 boroughs are not equipped with any such device, a recent poll conducted by his office indicated.
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