Building a national fingerprint archive has always been a controversial issue, with rights groups and the police taking divergent stances. But does the establishment of such an archive have a direct bearing on success rates in criminal investigations? Is there a need for such an archive?
The police believe a fingerprint archive is necessary to prevent crime and emsure the people's safety. The police cite the rising crime rate and say fingerprints do not leak personal information, so they do not infringe on privacy.
Rights groups believe putting fingerprints on national identity cards is unnecessary and inappropriate. They believe the Ministry of the Interior's plan is an imposition on the public and a waste of money. The Research, Development and Evaluation Commission of the Executive Yuan doesn't believe it is necessary to cause such a hassle at a time when finances are tight. Some academics say adding fingerprints to ID cards wouldn't help in crime investigations since it doesn't cost much to buy a pair of gloves, not to mention that criminals are unlikely to carry valid ID cards to prove their identities.
A computer system that could identify a fingerprint by scanning tens of millions of prints stored in an archive would not only be very costly to build, it would be based on the assumption that everybody is a potential criminal. But would it improve the success rate of criminal investigations?
Only seven nations in the world have national fingerprint archives and neither the US nor Japan are among them. As for the suggestion that an archive of foreigners' fingerprints should be compiled, the question of whether this would deter experienced criminals must be raised again.
Men in Taiwan are fingerprinted when they do their compulsory military service; first-time felons are also fingerprinted. Given that major criminals invariably start out by committing minor crimes, would a national archive provide more help to investigations?
A US public policy research paper said the murder rate in Tai-wan, which has gun control, is 20 percent higher than that of the US, where firearms can be legally owned. The murder rate in Japan, which also has gun control, is only a third of that of the US. This shows gun control is poorly implemented in Taiwan.
With an 80,000-strong police force and surrounded by the sea, Taiwan should have a high success rate in criminal investigations. But many cases remain unsolved. Whether a national fingerprint archive would improve the success rate is debateable.
In advanced democratic countries, people have a clear idea of abiding by the law. People in Tai-wan, however, are increasingly aware of their freedoms as society opens up, but the law-abiding spirit has not improved. Only by nuturing a law-abiding spirit can we develop the law's function of maintaining social order.
Tseng Chao-chang is chairman of the National Bar Association.
Translated by Francis Huang
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