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Police radio flawed: councilor

Taipei mass-rapid-transit (MRT) police do not use the same radio communication system as municipal police, which could result in delays and undermine public safety, a Taipei City councilor warned yesterday.

Because of the incompatible systems, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Pan Hwai-tzong (潘懷宗) said, the MRT police must contact the police dispatch center when seeking assistance from the police department.

Pan invited MRT police and municipal police to test the communication systems at the MRT Taipei City Hall station yesterday morning. It took 90 seconds before district police could receive a message sent via the MRT police dispatch center.

“If the MRT police is unable to get in touch with municipal police quickly enough, criminals will have more time to escape, which could expose passengers to danger,” Pan said.

Liu Kao-tsan (劉高燦), a deputy division chief at Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation (TRTC), said that in a serious incident, such as sexual harassment or robbery cases, MRT police first had to contact the police department’s dispatch center and wait for the center to call for help.

Pan said that when several cases of sexual harassment occurred at the same time in MRT stations, it took about 10 minutes for police patrol to receive the call for assistance from the dispatch center.

“By the time police arrive on the scene, the offender is already gone. Such delays in communication undermine public safety,” he said, calling on the police department and Taipei City Government to address the matter.

Fang Meng-kai (方盟凱) of the MRT police said the radio communication system used in MRT stations was designed to be able to receive signals underground or inside tunnels.

The system municipal police uses, on the other hand, is unable to receive any signals from underground, Fang said.

In April, Pan asked the city government to set aside a budget to improve the municipal police’s radio communication system and integrate it with that used by the MRT police, but the city government did not respond to his request.

Chiang Ming-shui (江明水), a division chief at the police department, said the Taipei Police Department and the TRTC would hold a cross-departmental meeting at Taipei City Hall this afternoon to resolve the problem.
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