Print

Mail

wiki links

Police to give the public access to fugitive's records

Police yesterday made public the names, dates of birth, photos, identification numbers and registration information of wanted fugitives on their Web site.

"This system will provide a new mechanism for the public to help us locate our wanted fugitives," said Liao Che-hsien (廖哲賢), a spokesman for the National Police Agency's Criminal Investigation Bureau.

According to Liao, to verify whether or not a person is a wanted fugitive, Internet surfers can log on, go to the National Police Agency's Web site at www.npa.gov.tw and click on the "inquiry" icon to begin the search.

After entering the name, identification number or a host of other information on the Web site, the system will automatically search for potential matches in its database and display the search results. If a person is not a wanted fugitive, the search result will appear as "no related information was found."

But if the person is a wanted fugitive, a detailed background, including the picture, name, identification number, registered address, will be listed.

In addition to the information provided on the Web site, Internet surfers will also have access to what crime a person is suspected of committing as well as any criminal history. Once a person is placed on a police wanted list, detailed background information will be immediately posted online.

Police also pointed out how the Web site could be useful to the public.

"When agreeing to rent a property to someone, landlords may be worried about whether the tenant is a criminal. From now on, all a landlord has to do is visit our Website and key in the necessary information and all the answers will be there," Liao said.

"For us, if a citizen sees someone suspicious and discovers that the person is a fugitive, after confirming whether or not someone is a wanted criminal on our Web site, he or she is more than welcome to contact us so we can locate the criminal and make an arrest," he said.

Liao said the bureau made the announcement and launched the service yesterday because wanted fugitives on the run have become discouraging for the country's 80,000 police officers.

"We need to do something to encourage ourselves," he said.
This story has been viewed 1776 times.