Interior minister Yu says crime rate relatively low

Minister of the Interior Yu Cheng-hsien (余政憲) yesterday reiterated his promise to bring the nation's growing crime rate to a dead stop, and claimed that Taiwan was doing better with crime than most countries.

"A low crime rate is indispensable for the realization of the government's economic goals. Maintaining public order and getting rid of bribery are two main tasks for the ministry to help boost the economy, and make the country go a long way," Yu said.

Yu the statement when he gave a speech during a Rotary Club gathering yesterday.

Yu out that the ministry was focusing on cracking down on vehicle theft and fraud. He said that although it was important to crack down on major crimes, people might care more about petty crimes happening around them.

"Our missions are based on people's feelings first. People's small problems are the government's big problems. We are asking the police to improve their service for people and take the initiative to stop the crime rate from growing," Yu said.

Yu that although the crime rate grew 2.85 percent in 2001, the rate for closing cases also grew 4 percentage points from 55.2 percent to 59.2 percent. Compared with Japan's 25.9 percent, or the US's 20.5 percent of closure, Taiwan was doing quite well, Yu said.

"A survey also showed that during the first half of this year, 66.53 percent of the Taiwanese pubic are satisfied with the state of our public order," Yu said.

He also defended his actions during the Hualien by-election.

"There were only about 1,700 police officers in total in Hualien for the by-election, and I only said there should be intensive checkups in the city center. It was not like media claims that there were officers everywhere trying to intimidate the public," Yu said.

"The government just wanted to get rid of bribery and make sure the election could proceed fairly. The government respects their right to vote for whomever they want, and it will surely remain neutral in the election."