A new rule, introduced last month, whereby police officers must obtain approval from their supervisors whenever they need to come into contact with underworld figures, has left law enforcement agencies divided.
The new rule, which states: “Any contact with gang members is technically prohibited at all times, but will be considered and approved for investigative purposes. [To this end] a paperwork application and a detailed report afterwards will be required.”
Drawing a line between police and gang members became a priority for the Ministry of the Interior and the National Police Agency (NPA) following the murder on May 28 of Taichung gangster Weng Chi-nan (翁奇楠), which occurred in the presence of four senior officers.
Investigators subsequently came to the conclusion that Weng had close connections to many Taichung City Police Department officers.
The new rule stipulates that paperwork submitted by an officer must be approved by more than three colleagues, including the precinct chief.
The post-contact report must be submitted no more than one day after the event.
For “emergency cases,” an officer can file his request to his superior verbally, but the paperwork must still be submitted within 12 hours.
Furthermore, meetings or contact between a police officer and a gang member must not be carried out at any “illegal” or “inappropriate” location, such as illegal casinos or hostess bars.
A police officer cannot accept bribes, leak any classified information to a gang member, become involved in drug dealing or gamble during contact.
The NPA said that before similar regulations came into force in Japan and Singapore, the opinions of police officers and social workers were taken into account.
Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺), whose agency oversees the nation’s approximately 80,000 police officers, said the rule was designed to prevent unduly close relationships between the police and gangsters. The opinions of several senior officers were also instrumental in drafting the new regulations.
“‘Relationships’ are permissible after an application has been filed, but ‘friendships’ are prohibited,” Jiang said.
Central Police University president Hou You-yi (侯友宜), a former director-general of the NPA, said that the new rule was “necessary, given the difficult times police are experiencing at the moment.”
“When you discipline yourself strictly, everybody will respect you, including the gangsters you are dealing with,” Hou said.
While it may be necessary to establish certain “relationships” with gangsters, Hou said, there are many alternatives.
“Gangsters will still respect and trust a cop if the latter follows the rules because it tells them that the officer is a man of his word,” Hou said.
Cheng Jui-lung (鄭瑞隆), the chairman of the Graduate Institute of Criminology at National Chung Cheng University, said that while new rules would be supported, enforced and carried out, it was natural that they would engender some complaints.
“Many years ago, a new rule stipulating that helmets were always required when riding a motorcycle and scooter was criticized and generated complaints, but there’s no question it was the right decision,” Cheng said.
A sergeant from Taipei County Police Department’s Younghe Precinct was more critical, saying on condition of anonymity that the new rule would be a major obstacle for law enforcement.
Having served in the force for almost 20 years, the officer said that what he had learned from senior officers and his own experience was that “certain” skills are required to arrest suspects and close a case.
The new rule, however, asks police to “kill the enemy without bullets,” he said.
“If you don’t talk to gangsters, you won’t understand what they think,” he said, adding that the new rule would also make criminal investigation one of the most difficult positions in the force.
Kao Wen-bin (高文彬), a member of the criminal investigation team at the Kaohsiung County Police Department’s Fengshan Precinct, said the rule would not affect him because “a good cop should always know what he is supposed to do, and what he should not do, at all times.”
“I always remind myself that I am a police officer no matter what I am doing. This is what I do to keep myself away from potential traps,” Kao said.
Taipei City Police Department Chungshan Precinct Dazhi Police Station detective Chen Feng-sheng (陳豐盛), one of the nation’s most famous undercover officers, said the regulation would undermine public order as it would limit police access to the underworld.
Chen was charged with drug possession while working undercover in a counter-narcotics operation in 1997, but the Taiwan High Court dropped the charge against him and he was allowed to return to his job in 2002.
“Having good informers is very important for police. If the NPA wants us to stay away from informers, it will also have to stop pushing us for performance,” Chen said.
“You are damned if you do and damned if you don’t,” he said.
“When you’re good, arrest many bad guys and close many cases, the public will speculate that you’re in a ‘relationship’ with the bad guys so you can always be one step ahead,” Chen said.
“However, when you perform poorly and arrest nobody, your superiors accuse you of being a lousy cop — or worse, suspect that you are corrupt,” he said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods