The Executive Yuan yesterday promised to purchase bulletproof equipment and ease rules governing firearm use for police after two officers were killed in Tainan while pursuing a suspect on Monday.
The suspect, identified as Lin Hsin-wu (林信吾), was arrested at a bus station in Hsinchu City at 4:36am following a nationwide search.
Lin, in his 40s, is a fugitive who escaped from Mingde Minimum Security Prison in Tainan, police said.
Photo copied by Tsai Chang-sheng, Taipei Times
After allegedly killing the two police officers, he fled to Kaohsiung before taking a vehicle to northern Taiwan, police said, adding that he was found with a gun and 18 bullets belonging to one of the killed policemen.
Executive Yuan spokesman Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) at a news conference in the afternoon said that government agencies have been instructed to provide care and indemnity to the families of the officers.
The Cabinet also hopes that the legislature can prioritize reviewing an amendment to the Act Governing the Use of Police Weapons (警械使用條例) in its next session, Deputy Minister of the Interior Chen Tsung-yen (陳宗彥) said.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
The amendment was sent to the legislature in May 2020 and passed a preliminary review in December 2020, he said.
It would relax regulations on the use of firearms by police, Lo said, adding that under the amendment, the State Compensation Act (國家賠償法) can be adopted if the use of firearms while carrying out police duties results in casualties.
The Ministry of the Interior is to convene a panel of experts to advise on firearm use and training, as well as draw up complementary measures, he added.
Regarding police equipment, the government has been procuring more vehicles for highway police, improving communication equipment and subsidizing local governments to replace old vehicles, Chen said.
It also plans to purchase 10,654 bulletproof vests and 54,386 bulletproof helmets for police use, he added.
As for training, 13 interactive shooting ranges have been set up in the past two years and 12 more are to be built to help officers familiarize themselves with various situations, he said.
Separately yesterday, Agency of Corrections Director Huang Chun-tang (黃俊棠) said that Lin had failed to return to the Mingde prison from a home visit.
Inmates in the prison can return home once every three months, he said, adding that Lin’s first home visit was normal, but he failed to return after his second visit.
Lin went home at 2pm on Aug. 13 and was supposed to return at 2pm on Monday last week, he said.
The prison contacted Lin’s family at 2:15pm and at 2:50pm asked the Kaohsiung City Police Department’s Fongshan Precinct and the Tainan City Police Department’s Jiali Precinct to look for him, he said.
The case was handed to the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office for investigation at 4:20pm, he added.
Although the risk of recidivism is high, setting up minimum security prisons is a good corrective measure and can help prisoners reintegrate into society, he said.
According to a report published by the Control Yuan in December 2020, 39 inmates escaped from minimum security prisons from 2011 to 2020, compared with eight people who escaped from normal prisons during the period.
The report had instructed the Ministry of Justice to reassess penalties imposed on fugitive inmates.
Additional reporting by Chen En-huei and Aaron Tu, with CNA
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS