Lawmakers yesterday passed an amendment to the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法) to allow penalties against people who abuse emergency hotlines.
The amendment says that people who call police hotlines without a legitimate reason and persist in doing so after receiving a warning may be detained for up to three days or fined up to NT$12,000.
The amendment covers the 110 emergency hotline as well as the hotlines used by each police precinct across the nation.
Before the amendment was passed, there were no regulations to deal with callers who deliberately misuse police hotlines, lawmakers said.
With the introduction of the penalties, it is hoped that a waste of police resources will be prevented, said Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政), People First Party Legislator Chen Yi-chieh (陳怡潔) and other lawmakers who proposed the bill.
During the preliminary review of the bill, Deputy Minister of the Interior Chiu Chang-yueh (邱昌嶽) suggested that the penalty be applied in cases where a caller abuses a police hotline and “obstructs an officer from carrying out their duties.”
However, Lo said that the phrase “obstructs an officer from carrying out their duties,” would have placed a burden of proof on the police, so it was replaced in the final version with a clause about callers who disregard warnings.
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