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Lawmaker seeks boost to police force's low morale

Chinese Nationalist Party Legislator Apollo Chen (陳學聖) yesterday told the government to boost the morale of the nation's underpaid and under-fire police force.

"According to the results of a police questionnaire, it is not difficult to find where the major problem lies -- the low morale of the police and their bad image and reputation," Chen said.

Chen said that slim paychecks, the low ranking of the police authorities in the government system and low respect from the public were the main reasons for the police's poor morale. In addition, many people still believe that the police can be bribed.

These problems were reflected in the result of a questionnaire conducted by National Taipei University's Questionnaire and Election Research Center between Nov. 3 and Nov. 5. All of the 1,078 telephone interviewees were older than 20.

According to the result, 32 percent of the interviewees said that they did not feel safe when they went out at night, while 6 percent said they had experienced a crime within the past three months.

Twenty-seven percent said they had heard about a crime within the past three months.

"Nearly 30 percent of the interviewees have heard about a crime," Chen said. "It is a sign that most people still do not feel safe in this country and believe that a crime could take place at any place and anytime."

However, Yang Yung-nane (楊永年), director of the National Central Police University's Administrative Management Department, defended the police.

"It is a problem for the law-enforcement authorities instead of an exclusive problem for the police," Yang said. "Honestly, to face so much criticism from the public every day, the police's morale is extremely low these days. We need to figure out a way to cheer them up before we can expect more from them."

The result of the questionnaire showed that of the 1,078 interviewees, 334 of them believed that the police could be bribed. However, only 32 of them had experienced a police officer asking for or accepting a bribe.

"It means that the police's reputation is a lot worse than what they actually are," Yang said.

Also, of the 68 interviewees who had been victims crimes, 31 decided not to report the matter to the police.

"Why didn't they report to the police? This is a serious problem we should think about," Chen said. "Is that a sign that the public do not have any confidence in the police?"

Yang said that the problem could run deeper.

"Honestly, many police officers do not have confidence in themselves, either, and that affects their performance," Yang said.

Of the 37 victims who did report to the police, 18 of them were not happy with the police's attitude when their cases were being dealt with.
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