Despite the doubts of many city councilors and critics, Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
"I'm not that naive to think that the sex industry will be eliminated within a short period of time," Ma said yesterday, less than a month after promising to completely rid Taipei of prostitution within 90 days.
PHOTO: FANG PIN-CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
"But if you were to ask me whether the intensive crackdown over the past month has produced any positive results, the answer would be `yes,'" Ma said. "Although, I'm not 100 percent satisfied with the results."
Ma said police would continue to make it difficult for the sex industry to survive in Taipei.
Over the past month investigators have stepped up their enforcement efforts -- which have included late-night raids on hotels and motels to see whether guests are sleeping with paid company.
"Just wait. We'll make it difficult for the sex industry to survive in the city and we'll eventually catch them," Ma said.
But with city police resources already stretched thin, the mayor failed to elaborate on how exactly the controversial campaign will continue.
In addition, Ma proposed yesterday that the central government should amend current laws to make it more difficult for prostitutes from China to enter the country.
In the past month, police have arrested 137 women from China on prostitution charges. Roughly 110 came to Taiwan through phony marriages, while the others were smuggled in.
Embarrassed by a string of scandals in which that Taipei policemen have been accused of running call-girl rings or of detaining prostitutes to extort money from their pimps, Ma promised in September to "drive out" the sex industry from Taipei.
But last week he backed off his promise, saying "the ultimate goal of the intensive police crackdown is not to drive out the sex industry, but to smoke out corrupt police officers."
Cases involving seven Taipei policemen who are suspected of having ties to the sex industry, have been handed over to prosecutors.
Prosecutors are also investigating 38 municipal police officers whose travel patterns in and out of the country may suggest ties to the sex industry.
According to a survey conducted by the city's Commission of Research, Development and Evaluation, more than 85 percent of the city's residents approve of Ma's crackdown.
But just 47 percent said they were satisfied with the results one month into the campaign, while 24 percent said they were not satisfied.
In addition, more than 47 percent of the respondents said that they weren't confident the intensive crackdown would be effective in driving the sex industry out of the city, while 41 percent said otherwise.
Responding to a question as to whether raids on hotels, motels and bars infringed upon the rights of proprietors and customers, more than 49 percent said "no," while over 41 percent said "yes."
Wang Cho-chiun (王卓鈞), director of Taipei Municipal Police Headquarters, said yesterday that he felt satisfied with the performance of municipal police over the past month.
"I know there's room for improvement, but we've spared no effort to reach the goal set down by the mayor," he said.
According to Wang, over the past month, police have arrested 843 women suspected of engaging in the illegal sex trade, 137 of them from China.
The average number of people arrested on the suspicion of prostitution is 237 monthly.
Police have also arrested 89 people suspected of running call girl services. A number of other suspects were forced to either shut down or switch their base of operations to residential buildings or hotels.
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