On April 22, 2021, music teacher Chan Hui-ling (詹慧玲) was stopped and questioned in Taoyuan’s Jhongli District (中壢) by a police officer, surnamed Yeh (葉). When she refused to cooperate, she was thrown to the ground and arrested for obstructing an officer in carrying out their duties.
Chan filed a complaint against the officer, but the Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office declined to press charges. After Chan applied for a reconsideration, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office ordered local authorities to conduct a second review. Yeh was found guilty in the first trial of coercion by a public official and was sentenced to four months in jail, in addition to offenses against personal freedom by a public official, for which he received a further six months.
The case highlights the major problem with spot checks by police.
Police conduct spot checks to maintain social order — not for criminal investigations. As such, spot checks do not involve arrest or search warrants, and are not subject to stringent oversight. Many years ago, the only legal basis for spot checks by police was Article 11 of the Police Duty Act (警察勤務條例), which demonstrates the dearth of attention given to spot checks. It was not until the passage of the 2003 Police Power Exercise Act (警察職權行使法), following the grand justices’ issuance of Interpretation No. 535 in 2001, that clearer legal norms were laid for spot checks.
According to Interpretation No. 535, police cannot conduct arbitrary or random inspections regardless of time, location or individuals. There must be reasonable doubt that shows the person poses a risk to endangering public safety or order.
Furthermore, before carrying out a spot check, there must be reasonable grounds to believe the person constitutes a hazard or will cause a hazard. This principle is also laid out in the first item of Article 6 of the Police Power Exercise Act.
Based on Paragraph 1, Article 4 of the same act, when initiating a stop-and-check, police shall present their credentials showing their identity and state their intent. Furthermore, Paragraph 1, Article 3 of the same act states that the principle of proportionality must be observed.
If an officer were to conduct a spot check without following legal procedures — for example, basing their action on subjective feelings, such as they think the target is a stranger or acting strangely — did not inform the other person why they were targeted, or breached the principle of proportionality, etc., they have no legal basis on which to conduct the check. In such cases, based on Paragraph 2, Article 4 of the Police Power Exercise Act, people have the right to refuse to cooperate.
Since the crime of obstructing an officer in discharge of their duties as stated in Paragraph 1, Article 135 of the Criminal Code assumes that civil servants perform their duties in accordance with the law, resisting illegal checks is a legitimate self-defense, and it is not considered obstructing an officer in carrying out their duties. It is the police who might be breaking the law if they were to take a person into custody without proper authority, through coercion or after an illegal search.
Most people would feel intimidated or unsure of what the legal consequences would be if they refused to cooperate. They could take legal action after the incident, but by that time it would be difficult to collect evidence. It is rare for somebody to stand up for their rights in the manner like Chan did, leading to the prosecution of a police officer.
As the Police Power Exercise Act has been in force for nearly 20 years, aside from reviewing and amending legislation, police must strive to comply with due process and protect people’s rights when conducting random inspections.
Wu Ching-chin is a law professor at Aletheia University and director of the university’s Research Center for Criminal Law.
Translated by Lin Lee-kai
What began on Feb. 28 as a military campaign against Iran quickly became the largest energy-supply disruption in modern times. Unlike the oil crises of the 1970s, which stemmed from producer-led embargoes, US President Donald Trump is the first leader in modern history to trigger a cascading global energy crisis through direct military action. In the process, Trump has also laid bare Taiwan’s strategic and economic fragilities, offering Beijing a real-time tutorial in how to exploit them. Repairing the damage to Persian Gulf oil and gas infrastructure could take years, suggesting that elevated energy prices are likely to persist. But the most
In late January, Taiwan’s first indigenous submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), completed its first submerged dive, reaching a depth of roughly 50m during trials in the waters off Kaohsiung. By March, it had managed a fifth dive, still well short of the deep-water and endurance tests required before the navy could accept the vessel. The original delivery deadline of November last year passed months ago. CSBC Corp, Taiwan, the lead contractor, now targets June and the Ministry of National Defense is levying daily penalties for every day the submarine remains unfinished. The Hai Kun was supposed to be
The Legislative Yuan on Friday held another cross-party caucus negotiation on a special act for bolstering national defense that the Executive Yuan had proposed last year. The party caucuses failed to reach a consensus on several key provisions, so the next session is scheduled for today, where many believe substantial progress would finally be made. The plan for an eight-year NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.59 billion) special defense budget was first proposed by the Cabinet in November last year, but the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers have continuously blocked it from being listed on the agenda for
On Tuesday last week, the Presidential Office announced, less than 24 hours before he was scheduled to depart, that President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned official trip to Eswatini, Taiwan’s sole diplomatic ally in Africa, had been delayed. It said that the three island nations of Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar had, without prior notice, revoked the charter plane’s overflight permits following “intense pressure” from China. Lai, in his capacity as the Republic of China’s (ROC) president, was to attend the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession. King Mswati visited Taiwan to attend Lai’s inauguration in 2024. This is the first
RSS