A bill regulating the way police carry out raids will be presented to the Legislative Yuan when it convenes next month, Vice Minister of the Interior Lee Yi-yang (
The proposed police duties enforcement law (
"With the new law, I hope that our police officers will be able to carry out their jobs and protect innocent people and their human rights at the same time," Lee said.
"And I also hope that this new law will make their jobs easier."
Lee said the law took three years to formulate and includes an interpretation handed down by the Council of Grand Justices (大法官會議) last month on how the police should conduct their raids.
Interpretation 535 of the Constitution by the grand justices said that police can only conduct raids with search warrants for specific locations or suspects "when their behavior obviously endangers innocent civilians."
Under the proposed legislation, random police raids will still be allowed but not on a "regular" or repeated basis.
During a police raid, if an individual fails to present his or her identification, the police will be allowed to take the person back to the nearest police station to finish the process.
However, the police are not allowed to detain a person for more than six hours if there is no evidence that the person has broken the law.
During that time, officers must report to the local police headquarters, where officers receive their assignments, and inform a relative or friend named by the person that he or she is being detained.
When the police stop an individual to request his or her identification or search the person, officers must first show their badges and explain to the person the reasons for the search.
The proposed legislation also stipulates that police informants must not break the law when gathering information.
The police will be allowed to temporarily occupy private land, residences, buildings or vehicles if the situation concerns public safety, according to the proposed legislation.
Civilians have the right to ask the police to stop a search when they feel it is unnecessary.
Once a request is made, the officer in charge at the scene must respond.
Civilians have the right to sue the police if they regard the police's actions as "excessive."
Lee said that the bill was being sent to the Executive Yuan for a final review and would then be passed to the Legislative Yuan for approval when legislators start a new session on Feb. 1.
Lee Chen-shan (
Others involved in the project include Liu Tsung-te (
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary