Public safety showed little improvement in spite of the government's efforts to make the country a safer place to live in, according to a survey released by the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) on Wednesday.
The survey yielded an average score of 61.29 percentage points in terms of public satisfaction with safety levels in Taiwan, showing little change from previous survey results.
This was the third time that the survey was conducted since March last year, when the ministry launched its public safety improvement project.
The score of 61.29, covering the period from October to December last year, was up 5.43 percentage points compared with the survey for March to May but similar to the results garnered in the June to August survey.
Penghu County again notched the highest score in terms of public safety, while Taichung City ranked last once again.
The two places have ranked first and last three times in a row.
Taichung City saw nine kidnapping cases in the past three months and has the highest crime rate in the country.
Taichung City Mayor Jason Hu (
More police are needed to improve safety in the city, Hu said, adding though that public safety has not gotten worse.
Ministry officials said that they hoped local governments would place more emphasis on public safety, and that the ministry would provide assistance for local police agencies when needed.
The survey also showed that phone scams had not decreased since the last poll, with 71.24 percent of the respondents having received such calls and messages.
Most of the respondents said they wanted the police to patrol neighborhoods more often and to crack down on traffic violations.
Recent surveys conducted by the local TVBS station over the Lunar New Year indicated that 44 percent of the 801 people polled were worried about leaving their homes during the holidays because they were worried about break-ins.
Deputy Minister of the Interior Yen Wan-ching (
The survey was conducted by the civic poll centers, Taiwan Marketing Research Company and Trend Go Research and Survey Company, via telephone. Roughly 800 people were polled in 23 cities and counties.
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