A meeting attended by Taipei City Government officials yesterday revealed that authorities’ work to clamp down on massage parlors illegally offering sexual services has been inefficient, as officials blamed their failure to take action against 14 illegal businesses on a loophole in the inspection procedure concerning massage parlors.
The city government called a meeting to review its governance of public safety, during which officials briefed Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) on safety issues pertaining to massage parlors and also on illegally offered sexual services.
According to statistics released on Thursday last week, officials found that of the 37 massage parlors that had been found by police to have offered sexual sevices in June, 14 had since continued to do so.
Although the Taipei Department of Health had been put in charge of identifying non-compliant massage parlors since September and might not yet be fully familiar with the task, the department nevertheless should have done a better job, since it regularly receives inspection results from the Taipei Police Department, Taipei City Government adviser Tsai Mao-yueh (蔡茂岳) said.
Tsai’s remark was met with protest from Taipei Department of Health Commissioner Huang Shih-chieh (黃世傑), who called the new task assigned to his department “redundant work,” saying that if the Taipei Police Department finds evidence of sexual activities at the parlors, it alone should be able to confirm violators, and that having his department conduct a separate inspection makes no sense.
Huang said his agency often failed to find evidence of irregularities after receiving word about illegal activities from the police.
“The police department said they found illegalities, but when we double-checked, we found nothing,” he said.
Huang said the Taipei Police Department’s inspection records should be used as the sole reference for registering violations, while a Taipei Department of Health official said the department can provide police with a checklist comprising items mandated by the Department of Health, so that officers can carry out inspections accordingly.
Ko said the two departments should launch joint inspections and appointed Taipei City Government Deputy Secretary-General Lin Wan-fa (林萬發) to coordinate between the two agencies and put forward a standard operating procedure for inspecting massage parlors.
Regarding residents refusing to remove illegal structures deemed to be obstructive to firefighters and other emergency workers, Ko said that the Taipei Fire Department should put up a sign reading: “Firefighting is not possible in this area. The city government does not take any responsibility.”
“At least we would have informed them,” Ko said.
People who have illegal structures obstructing access to fire lanes, such as signs and canopies, should sign an affidavit consenting to waive the city government’s responsibilities in the event of a fire, he said.
“Members of the public often refuse to let the government intervene in these kind of incidents and resort to improper influence [by turning to borough wardens or city councilors], but when there is a fire, the public blames the government for not having duly carried out inspections,” Ko said.
He would erect warning signs at the entrances of narrow fire lanes as Ko instructed, Taipei Fire Department Commissioner Wu Chun-hong (吳俊鴻) said, adding that firefighting in such alleys is typically conducted by extending water hoses into the lanes.
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