Taipei City Police Department’s Zhongshan Precinct yesterday apologized after three police officers asked a woman to strip during a search in a toilet in a convenience store.
Police said the 25-year-old woman, surnamed Huang (黃), and a male companion drove up to a police inspection point at 3:45am on Sunday.
Two police officers at the checkpoint said they smelled what they thought was ketamine, but found nothing after searching the car, the two people’s bags and pockets.
Huang was quoted by local media reports as saying that the police officers asked if she would cooperate in a body search, and she said yes, thinking that they would not let her leave if she said no.
Huang was quoted as saying that the two police officers asked a female police officer to carry out the body search. The female officer took her to a toilet at a nearby convenience store and asked her to take off all her clothes, including her bra, which the officer inspected.
Huang was quoted as saying that she felt embarrassed as she covered her breasts with her hands, adding that the police officer also asked her to jump twice while topless before asking her to also take off her pants and underwear.
“There should be no need to remove my pants, right?” she was quoted as asking the officer.
“You said you would cooperate fully,” the officer was quoted as saying.
The woman said she took off her underwear and was naked for five seconds.
The precinct yesterday said it had investigated the matter and concluded that the three officers had acted out of line and were given minor demerits.
According to lawyer Tsai Jui-lin (蔡瑞麟), the Police Duties Enforcement Act (警察職權行使法) stipulates that when a driver stops at a police checkpoint, officers are not permitted to search the driver’s car without sufficient reason.
Moreover, the Code of Criminal Procedure (刑事訴訟法) states that only people who are under arrest should be subjected to a body search, he said.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai