Even though crime rates in Taipei's Chungshan district have shown a dramatic drop for the past three months, officials and commentators yesterday said there was still room for improvement in crime prevention.
At a conference hosted by the Taipei City Police Headquarters (北市警察局) yesterday, chief of the Chungshan district police department, Huang Sheng-yung (黃昇勇), briefed Taipei City Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) along with the city's 13 other district counterparts, officials, scholars and city councilors.
The conference was introduced in January this year by Mayor Ma in a bid to improve the city's social order after his visit to the New York Police Department in September last year. This is the first of the second cycle of the round-table meetings and is the first time Ma has attended.
"Crime prevention is endless -- you simply cannot let up for a minute," he said. "The purpose of the meeting is to provide police departments with the methods of crime prevention used in other districts. Here we hope to bring up the problems faced by one department and try to look for possible answers."
According to Huang, for the past three months -- December 1999 to February 2000 -- a total of 49 violent crimes were recorded in the Chungshan district, 37 less than the figure for the same period last year.
The time period from 9pm to midnight was when most violent crimes were committed, and Linsen North Road and Hsinsheng North Road were considered the most dangerous places for violent crimes.
In addition, a total of 837 thefts were reported for the past three months, 497 less than the number registered over the same period last year.
Midnight through 3am sees the most theft cases, followed by 9am through 12pm; Chungshan North Road and Hsinsheng North Road have the highest rates of theft.
Even though the district's crime prevention efforts were commended by officials and scholars, they said there is still room for improvement.
"If manpower is insufficient, it might not be a bad idea for the law enforcement officers to work together with the civilian watch volunteers and volunteer police officers," Ma said.
The Chungshan district consists of 40 neighborhoods, and currently only 11 civilian patrol groups are available.
Ma praised the "house theft prevention program," which police said has resulted in a 40 percent decrease of home robberies since its launch in October last year.
Ma also encouraged the public to make better use of anti-theft locks, and recommended harsher regulations on allowing habitual thieves to be released on bail.
To prevent future thefts, the department has assigned undercover police to the more dangerous areas, and has installed lighting systems, mounted surveillance cameras, and put up warning posters.
Central Police University professor Lee Yung-ching (
"Posting intervals, colors, and the wording of the posters are important, because after all, you want people to pay attention to it," he said.
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