New police head to adopt fair incentives

Making sure that the National Police Administration (NPA) has 100 percent authority over its personnel affairs has become newly assigned Director-General Chang Si-liang's (張四良) priority since he took his oath of office on July 1.

Chang, the nation's top-ranking police officer, said at his inauguration that inspiring the country's 70,000 police officers is a must-do. To begin with, making sure that officers get proper promotion regularly is the first step to encourage them.

"We must let them [police officers] know that everybody will have the chance to become director-general of the NPA if he works hard. It is a fair game," Chang said.

"Think about this. If you know that you are working hard for something, won't you work harder to achieve it?"

For the past two weeks, Chang was busy working on a promotion list of the posts for high-ranking police officers.

According to his proposed arrangement, Kaohsiung City Police Department Commissioner Hung Sheng-kun will be promoted as a deputy director-general of the NPA; NPA Secretary-General Hsieh Hsiu-neng (謝秀能) will succeed Hung to take care of Kaohsiung City's public order; the NPA's Fifth Peace Preservation Police Chief Huang Jiunn-hung (黃俊宏) will be promoted and take over Hsieh's position; Kaohsiung County Police Department Commissioner Yuan Hsing-yi (袁行一) will then succeed Huang's position and Aviation Police Bureau Deputy Commissioner Chen Po-hsuan (陳伯壎) will become the new commissioner of the Hualien County Police Department.

In addition, Chiayi City Police Department Commissioner Wen Kuo-chung (文國忠) will be promoted as the NPA's Inspection Department chief and his position will be succeeded by Taipei City Police Department's Chungshan Precinct Director Chen Kuo-an (陳國恩).

The NPA has authority over police personnel. However, according to "tradition," the NPA, however, always submitted its proposed personnel arrangements to the Ministry of the Interior (MOI), which is the superior office of the NPA, for an initial review and approval before it is sent to local government offices for the final approval.

In the past, this mechanism created many obstacles for police officers' promotion because under this system, hard work did not guarantee proper promotion.

Since Chang became director-general, he has been trying hard to make sure that the NPA has the authority to decide its own personnel affairs because it would also be a sign that police officers' promotions would not be affected by politics or favoritism.

However, Chang's plan was not realized when Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興) insisted on promoting Kaohsiung County Police Department Deputy Commissioner Chen Shu-tien (陳書田) to succeed Yuan, although Chang had nominated three candidates for Yang's to approval.

Both Chang and Yang refused to reveal the three candidates' names.

"Chang said that proper promotion will be important for hard-working police officers. I agree with that so I think Deputy Chen deserves the promotion," Yang said.

"Yuan's position is an important one. No matter who is going to take the seat, this candidate must be a senior officer who has been through positions such as senior inspector of either Taipei City or Kaohsiung City or local police department commissioner. Chen is a good cop with a great reputation but he needs at least another 10 years' experience with the force to be qualified for the post," Chang said. "We are still negotiating with Commissioner Yang and it will be worked out soon."