Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), a straight talker who says what is on his mind, has become a media darling. As he challenges big corporations and religious organizations, he has also gained the support of many Taipei residents and netizens. Despite all this, his plan to set up cameras where illegal parking is common has encountered stiff resistance from many academics, judges and netizens.
To save on human resources, Ko does not want police officers “to stand like scarecrows” at such locations 24 hours per day. This is the thinking behind an idea to issue parking tickets based on video recordings.
Ko says that video recordings are used to issue speeding tickets on freeways and proposes this method to improve law enforcement efficiency and reduce costs.
Opponents of the idea have raised several issues. For example, Taoyuan District Court Judge Chien Chien-jung (錢建榮) said that private vehicles fall under Article 22 of the Constitution, which gives people the right to determine where, how, to whom and to what extent their personal information should be provided, and that using surveillance cameras to maintain social order and prevent parking violations might be a violation of human rights.
Chien mentioned constitutional Interpretation No. 603 — which says that the Household Registration Act (戶籍法) requirement for people to have their fingerprints taken is unconstitutional — to highlight that the government is not permitted to record private information for the sake of administrative expediency.
The law is there to serve the public and it lays down restrictions to protect people from breaches and to prevent the government from violating people’s rights. The law is a contract between the state and the public, and an individual’s actions will be restricted by whether something is determined to be illegal, just as it places restrictions on the state apparatus.
Ko might say that “there is no law saying that it is not allowed,” but as long as constitutionally protected rights are involved, the government cannot arbitrarily implement a rule that goes against them.
According to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例), a driver shall receive a citation, not necessarily at the scene, if the driver breaches certain regulations, including any violation that can be proved by scientific instruments. This regulation also includes illegal parking, but only if the driver is not present at the scene. This means that a police officer would be required to provide evidence that the driver was not present, which would require additional time and resources.
The cost would not vary much from the cost of regular law enforcement, but there is the added risk that human rights will be sacrificed in the process. Even if surveillance cameras were only put in place as a “scarecrow,” aimed at deterring parking violations, it would mean that Big Brother is watching and threatening the public, and this is neither wise nor ideal.
As a physician and not a veteran politician or government official, Ko can come up with suggestions and unprecedented ways of how to deal with problems, but handling public affairs is different from medical crises. It entails more complicated issues such as the Constitution and the law, as well as political and public reactions. This means that something cannot be implemented just because there is no law explicitly prohibiting it.
On the other hand, when freedoms and rights are involved, they must not be restricted or compromised in any way unless it is explicitly allowed by the law. This is the legal lesson that Ko must draw from the surveillance-camera affair.
However, if he can obtain legal authorization to follow through on his suggestion, that would be a different matter altogether.
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