Mon, Aug 19, 2002 page4

• Arrests reignite debate over fingerprint database

  HUNTING CRIMINALS Some law enforcement officials claim that a national fingerprint database would mean that serious crimes are solved faster than they are now

  • By Jimmy Chuang / STAFF REPORTER
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  The arrest on Aug. 7 of two suspects in the murder of former Hsinhu Elementary School teacher Wu Hsiao-hui (吳曉蕙) based on fingerprint evidence has once again raised calls for the establishment of a national fingerprint database.

  That it took the police eight years to make a breakthrough in the case suggests that people's human rights might actually be better protected if there was a fingerprint database, some law enforcement officials and lawmakers said.

  The two suspects were linked to the case after the police received a tip last month that one of them, Huang Chi-feng (黃啟峰), had admitted to friends that he had murdered Wu.

  

  Keelung City Police Commissioner Wu Chen-chi, whose daughter was murdered in Taipei eight years ago, fields questions from city councilors on Aug. 9.

  PHOTO: LU HSIEN-HSIU, TAIPEI TIMES

  Huang was finally arrested after fingerprints, palmprints and blood samples he provided to the police in relation to a rape case last October were matched with prints found on Wu's car at the crime scene.

  Cheng Ching-sung (鄭清松), commissioner of the National Police Administration's Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB), said that it had taken the police eight years to make a breakthrough in Wu's case because very little evidence had been discovered at the crime scene and there were no witnesses. The police didn't even know how many suspects they were looking for, Cheng said.

  "We tried to match the fingerprints we collected in our databank. However, it came up with nothing," Cheng said. "As for the palmprint, the police could not analyze it properly because they don't have the equipment to do it."

  Police said that Huang identified his friend Wang Yu-chuan (王鈺銓) as an accomplice in the murder and that they both then confessed.

  The establishment of a national fingerprint databank was first raised in a 1997 amendment to the Household Registration Law (戶籍法).

  The amendment required everyone over the age of 14 to provide their fingerprints when issued with photo identification cards.

  However, human-rights groups lobbied against the proposal and it was rejected.

  The CIB already has a fingerprint database compiled from Ministry of National Defense records and police records of suspects when they are arrested, Cheng said.

  "Military personnel are required to give fingerprint information when they join the armed forces. For security purposes, the CIB also has access to this information," Cheng said.

  However, the database is far from comprehensive and Cheng said there were, in particular, two kinds of people whose fingerprints would not have been recorded.

  "First, when the suspect is a female, with no military background or a criminal record, or second, when the suspect is a male but hasn't served his compulsory military service and has no criminal record," Cheng said.

  While all men in Taiwan over the age of 18 are required to complete compulsory military service, there are certain exemptions, such as for disability or obesity.

  Cheng said that if the police hadn't received the tip and been able to use the fingerprint, palmprint and blood sample he provided to police in an unrelated case, Wu's murder would have remained unsolved.

  "I think this is a good example of how important a national fingerprint databank is," Cheng said.

  Sandy Yeh (葉毓蘭), director of the Continuing Education and Training Center at the Central Police University, also believes a national fingerprint database would help the police investigate serious crimes.

  She said protecting people's privacy should not be a problem if the database is well regulated.

  "In the US, every newborn baby has to give its fingerprints when it applies for a social security card," Yeh said. "The fingerprint information is only used by the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for criminal investigation purposes. That is what we are trying to do here in Taiwan as well."

  Lawmakers are also warming to the idea.

  TSU Legislator Chien Lin Hui-chun (錢林慧君) said human rights and privacy should be protected at all costs. However, if a new mechanism finds criminals more quickly, more innocent people's human rights would be protected, she said.

  "A national fingerprint database would enable the police to find the criminals a lot more easily," she said. "In addition, whenever there's a disaster, this databank will also help forensic pathologists and family members identify bodies."

  DPP lawmaker Lee Wen-chung (李文忠) said that it was necessary to establish a national fingerprint database for security reasons, but with protections for human rights.

  "From a security point of view, I support the proposal. However, how the fingerprint databank is used should be regulated by law so there will be no problems of violating human rights," Lee said.

  PFP lawmaker Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) agreed.

  "We're living in a high-tech world," Lee Hung-chun said. "While we're building a national fingerprint database, we should at the same time make sure people's rights are protected."

  Executive Yuan Spokesman Chuang Shuo-han (莊碩漢) said that the government was not planning to present a fingerprint database bill until experts and lawmakers had come up with a well-organized mechanism to clarify the questions that human-rights activists had raised.

  "Protecting human rights is always our top priority," Chuang said. "We won't support the proposal before human-rights groups accept it."

  In the meantime, the President's Advisory Group on Human Rights said that seminars would be held next month to discuss this issue.
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