A central government plan to expand special municipalities’ police forces has encountered opposition from mayors across party lines, who said it would place additional pressure on municipal finances.
The central government plans to expand the police forces of Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and New Taipei City by 700, 500, 400 and 939 respectively, a source said.
The number of new officers allocated to Taoyuan Police Department would weigh heavily on city finances, in terms of salary and training, Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦), of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), told a Cabinet meeting yesterday.
Photo: Yeh Yung-chien, Taipei Times
“The city hopes that the Executive Yuan would offer subsidies,” Cheng said.
According to the source, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), an independent, has already refused to take on the new officers.
Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲), of the DPP, said that the city’s police department estimates that training and salary for 400 officers would cost NT$400 million (US$12.97 million) per year.
Huang suggested that the central government scale down its number of students accepted at Central Police University.
The increased enrollment and training for police officers and firefighters over the past few years would see a wave of graduates seeking jobs this year and next year, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said.
New Taipei City alone is expected to employ 939 new graduate police officers and 250 firefighters just this year, with an expected increase of NT$6 billion in related expenditure over the next four years, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) mayor said.
The New Taipei City Council hired 339 new police officers last month, although the municipal budget was still pending approval, Hou said.
Adding another 600 officers would exceed city funding for police expenditure, he said.
Expenditure by the police department alone is expected to increase by NT$1.2 billion next year and NT$4 billion in the next four years, Hou said.
The increase is largely due to a lack of police officers retiring this year, which Hou attributed to the government’s pension reforms.
Urging lawmakers to expedite the passage of amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法), Hou said that New Taipei City received the least funds from tax revenue distribution, despite having the largest population among the six special municipalities.
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