Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) yesterday spent his day working on matters concerning public safety, and chaired an anti-terrorism drill in Dazhi.
"Every local head of law enforcement is responsible for public safety. `Shortage of manpower' is not an excuse anymore," Hsieh said during his opening speech at the weekly Cabinet meeting yesterday morning.
Recent attacks
Hsieh mentioned recent attacks and said that police officers need more training to protect themselves safe while they are carrying out their duties.
"As for the Hsichih case, I took it is a challenge for law enforcement officers and is a very serious problem," the premier said.
"How can you expect average people to feel safe while even police officers can be attacked and murdered? We must find the attackers and close the case as soon as possible," he added.
Hsieh also asked law enforcement officers to locate notorious fugitive Chang Hsi-ming (張錫銘) and to arrest him as soon as possible.
"He is a `must-arrest' for our officers," the premier said.
Recruitment
According to a National Police Agency plan, another 1,315 officers will be recruited this year to join the police force.
However, a serious labor shortage still exists.
"The real problem is how to attract more young men to devote themselves to the police force instead of taking advantage of it as an excuse for doing nothing about maintaining public safety," Hsieh said.
After the Cabinet meeting, Hsiehchaired the anti-terrorism drill, which was held by the Cabinet's anti-terrorism office at a classified military site in Dazhi.
No news coverage at the scene was allowed but Cabinet Spokesman Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) briefed the press afterwards.
The Anti-Terrorism Office, which was led by Cabinet senior consultant Kuo Lin-wu (郭臨伍), was established in November last year.
Prior to joining the Cabinet, Kuo was the deputy secretary-general of the National Security Council.
It was the first time the office had organized such an event since it was established.
Emergency response
Cho said that the drill practiced emergency responses to five different types of terrorist attacks -- individual violence, radioactive materials, poisoning, biochemical weapons and Internet hacking.
"For the drill, we created three different scenarios. First, unidentified terrorists have entered the country. Second, a plane has exploded and an unexploded bomb has been discovered at CKS International Airport. In the third case, three terrorists have kidnapped a group of hostages at the airport and are now demanding money and transportation," Cho said.
Cho said that he was not authorized to give too much information because what happened during the drill was classified.
But he said that half of the Cabinet's 36 members participated in the event.
The spokesman explained that yesterday's drill involved numerous departments, including the military, the police and the coast guard.
Standard procedure
But, Cho said, the objective of the drill was more like a discussion between the heads of the agencies to come up with a standardized procedure for potential terrorist attacks in the future.
"Our priority is to keep terrorism outside of the country. If that fails, then we will need to eliminate it," Cho said.
"If that fails as well, then we will do our best to rescue the situation and troubleshoot the problems," he added.
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