A Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker yesterday urged the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to set a ceiling on the number of traffic contraventions members of the public can report per day.
At a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Transportation Committee, DPP Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津) said that in New Taipei City, two people each reported 8,000 traffic infringements in a year.
Another Taipei resident reported 7,779 traffic contraventions in a year, she said.
Some of the reports did not have definite proof and at best offered unclear photographs, Yeh said.
While people are not required to verify the information or provide formal written reports when reporting traffic infringements, police officers must review all of them, she said, adding that due to the huge number of reports police departments are receiving, every Taipei police officer must review 6,000 such reports on average.
One officer even developed macular degeneration after spending long periods handling such reports and had to leave his section, Yeh said.
Much of the evidence collected for the reports involves car drivers being stalked, which is an invasion of their privacy, she said, adding that even police officers cannot collect evidence for traffic contraventions in that manner.
Most of the reported cases are about illegal parking, running a red light or crossing double white lines, Yeh said.
Considering those infringements do not cause immediate danger to the public, but affect police officer’s work, the ministry should set a ceiling on the number of traffic contraventions a person can report per day, she said.
For example, it could limit reports to one per day per person, Yeh said.
Department of Railways and Highways Director-General Chen Wen-juei (陳文瑞) said that the government had designed the reporting system hoping that reports from the public would help the police.
In the past few years, traffic reports from the public have increased in number, he said, adding that if the reported infringements are mild, police officers do not have to handle them.
The ministry would discuss with the National Police Agency how to best handle the high number of traffic reports, Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said.
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