Bill planned to regulate police raids

A bill regulating the way police carry out raids will be presented to the Legislative Yuan when it convenes next month, Vice Minister of the Interior Lee Yi-yang (李逸洋) said yesterday.

The proposed police duties enforcement law (警察職務執行法) will stipulate under what circumstances police can conduct raids and searches, how long suspects can be held and the rights of those being searched.

"With the new law, I hope that our police officers will be able to carry out their jobs and protect innocent people and their human rights at the same time," Lee said.

"And I also hope that this new law will make their jobs easier."

Lee said the law took three years to formulate and includes an interpretation handed down by the Council of Grand Justices (大法官會議) last month on how the police should conduct their raids.

Interpretation 535 of the Constitution by the grand justices said that police can only conduct raids with search warrants for specific locations or suspects "when their behavior obviously endangers innocent civilians."

Under the proposed legislation, random police raids will still be allowed but not on a "regular" or repeated basis.

During a police raid, if an individual fails to present his or her identification, the police will be allowed to take the person back to the nearest police station to finish the process.

However, the police are not allowed to detain a person for more than six hours if there is no evidence that the person has broken the law.

During that time, officers must report to the local police headquarters, where officers receive their assignments, and inform a relative or friend named by the person that he or she is being detained.

When the police stop an individual to request his or her identification or search the person, officers must first show their badges and explain to the person the reasons for the search.

The proposed legislation also stipulates that police informants must not break the law when gathering information.

The police will be allowed to temporarily occupy private land, residences, buildings or vehicles if the situation concerns public safety, according to the proposed legislation.

Civilians have the right to ask the police to stop a search when they feel it is unnecessary.

Once a request is made, the officer in charge at the scene must respond.

Civilians have the right to sue the police if they regard the police's actions as "excessive."

Lee said that the bill was being sent to the Executive Yuan for a final review and would then be passed to the Legislative Yuan for approval when legislators start a new session on Feb. 1.

Lee Chen-shan (李震山), a professor from National Chung Cheng University, was invited by the Ministry of the Interior to be the convener of the project to formulate the legislation.

Others involved in the project include Liu Tsung-te (劉宗德), dean of studies at the National Chengchi University; Chen Chun-sheng (陳春生), a law professor from the National Chungshing University; and officials from the Judicial Yuan, the Ministry of Justice, the Taiwan High Court Prosecutors' Office (台灣高檢署) and local district prosecutors' offices.