One day after a Kaohsiung police officer allegedly committed suicide following his arrest for murder, Minister of the Interior Lee Yi-yang (李逸洋) touted his ministry's crime-fighting record in the legislature yesterday.
The National Police Agency under the ministry has been stung by a string of cases involving officers committing crimes since Premier Su Tseng-chang (
"Public safety has worsened since the premier pledged to crack down on crime," Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (
"Police officers are out there raping women," he added.
Responding to lawmakers' criticism that Kaohsiung police officer Lee Hsing-ho (
Lee Hsing-ho was detained on suspicion of murdering a Kaohsiung woman, posting bail on Tuesday afternoon.
According to local media, the suspended officer then returned to his police bureau that evening, where he fraternized with colleagues before throwing himself off the eighth floor.
Hou confirmed reports that Lee Hsing-ho had been drinking tea with colleagues on the bureau's third floor and had gone up to the eighth floor alone after excusing himself to go to the bathroom.
While speaking to legislators on the nation's biggest-ever cash heist on Jan. 3, Hou also said that a security guard who was allegedly drugged by a co-worker during the heist was a suspect in the case.
Former security guard Lee Han-yang (
He has since been apprehended by Chinese authorities.
KMT Legislator Lee Ching-hua (
Hou, meanwhile, said that China would extradite Lee Han-yang "very soon." As for the missing NT$56 million, police officials yesterday said the cash was probably still in Taiwan, but that their search was continuing.
Minister Lee told skeptical lawmakers in the committee meeting that crime rates nationwide were dropping.
However, he admitted that "more than 200 police officers among the total 67,000 nationwide are corrupt and regularly engage in criminal behavior."
Slamming the minister for leading an "undisciplined" police force, Wu said that Taiwan's police were "worse than Mexico's."
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