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Military police still follow orders

The Ministry of Justice yesterday said that the military police are still supposed to follow prosecutors' orders by law, although the Military Police Command Center said that its "investigative department" will be dismissed in two years.

"We cannot predict how serious and bad the impact will be at this moment. But prosecutors will still need the military police's help in the future. That is something I am quite sure of," said Tsai Pi-yu (蔡碧玉), the director of the ministry's Prosecutorial Affairs Department.

The Military Police Command Center's "investigative department" is a military unit, but servicemen of the department work with the police on prosecutors' recommendations.

According to Tsai, the Code of Criminal Procedure (刑事訴訟法) stipuilates that the military police are also regarded as law-enforcement officials in addition to their military assignments and duties.

As a result, the military police and the police are both under prosecutors' authorization when prosecutors need their help to investigate crimes.

In addition to the police and the military police, prosecutors also have authority over special agents of the ministry's Bureau of Investigation.

According to the Military Police Command Center, its investigative department has been prosecutors' favorite law enforcement unit because most prosecutors have a traditional leaning toward the military -- most servicemen are well-trained, always try their best to accomplish the job, are capable of keeping a secret and will not ask for rewards even if they have achieved something extraordinary.

The center said that prosecutors often asked for their help when investigating drug dealing cases, bribery cases and matters involving the local mafia and illegal casinos.

However, upon request of the Ministry of National Defense, all military units have to reduce the personnel of unnecessary departments, units and offices, including those whose duties do not concern national defense.

"As a result, we have to dismiss the investigative department, since our men at the department were working for prosecutors and their jobs have nothing to do with the military or national defense," said a high-ranking military police officer who wanted to remain anonymous.

"According to our plan, we will minimize the department gradually and will completely remove it in two years," he said. "As a result, we will also begin to decline requests from prosecutors to enforce the law in the near future, since we will not have enough manpower to do so."

However, Tsai said that the Military Police Command Center's dismissing the investigative department should have nothing to do with whether the military police are subject to prosecutors' authorization, because the law does not change at all.

"Up to this minute, we have not heard anything about their [the Military Police Command Center] cutting personnel. However, we will work something out. I am quite sure about that as well because we are also suffering from a lack of manpower at local prosecutors' offices," Tsai said.
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