The Taipei City Police Department yesterday said that its Inspection Department has set up a special task force to maintain discipline, investigate police officers when they allegedly break the law and arrest them when necessary.
However, since the special task force falls under the city police department's jurisdiction, it will cover only Taipei's 14 precincts.
"The special task force will be operating as an internal affairs department," said Tsai Jiunn-chang (蔡俊章), chief inspector at the department.
"Recently, there has been problems regarding the police's discipline and we shall do something to improve the situation," he said.
"A police officer has to be disciplined by strict rules and a high moral standard before he can go out on the streets to protect the innocent," he said.
According to Tsai, the special task force was established on Sept. 1 and consists of senior officers in the department. Its goal is to make sure that police officers do not get involved in any kind of immoral activities or crimes.
"There is a lot of work to be done to achieve that goal. But at least we have started the process," Tsai said.
The announcement regarding the task force was linked to a scandal which made the front pages of Chinese-language newspapers a few days ago.
The newspapers reported that in 2001, Hung Kwang-jung (
Hung allegedly offered Pai, Yu and Duan NT$200,000 to release Yueh Mei-hsiu (
The trio allegedly accepted Hung's bribe money but released only Chang. The ensuing argument caused the matter to be brought to the attention of their superior officers. All four men were fired from their positions and transferred to the Shihlin District Prosecutors' Office and the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office for further investigation.
Responding to the story, the Inspection Department immediately denied part of the report and explained that the city police department had completed all necessary legal process regarding this case.
According to a press release by the Inspection Department, the event took place in February, 2001. Hung was fired and transferred to the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office on Nov. 16 that year and is still under investigation.
The press release states that Hung indeed tried to bribe Pai, Yu and Duan, but that the trio refused his offer. They did not release Yueh and Chang, either.
However, the three officers allegedly detained Yueh and Chang for more than 24 hours, which was against the law.
The Nankang Precinct did not fire the trio but transferred them to the Shihlin District Prosecutors' Office for investigation and on May 30 last year prosecutors decided not to indict them.
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