The Control Yuan has censured the police precinct in Taoyuan’s Jhongli District (中壢) after investigating the arrest of music teacher Chan Hui-ling (詹慧玲) in April last year.
Chan, who thought she was being stopped without cause, refused to answer a police officer’s questions and called the incident “really stupid.”
The police officer, surnamed Yeh (葉), handcuffed Chan and arrested her on suspicion of obstructing a public official.
Photo: Yu Jui-jen, Taipei Times
Chan filed a report accusing the officer of infringing on her civil liberties and causing bodily harm.
The Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office closed the case in October last year without prosecuting either party, but Chan requested that the decision be reconsidered.
Control Yuan members Lin Kuo-ming (林國明), Chen Chin-jun (陳景峻) and Tsai Chung-yi (蔡崇義) were in charge of the investigation.
Yeh had no grounds to stop and question Chan, did not inform her about the procedure and ignored her objection, the investigation found, adding that Yeh contravened regulations on exercising police power and infringed on Chan’s freedoms.
The Jhongli Police Precinct had turned a blind eye toward officers’ undisciplined performance of their duties, allowing them to stop and question citizens in self-defined “high-crime areas,” the three Control Yuan members said.
The precinct failed to provide thorough on-the-job training, which resulted in a few officers enforcing the law at will and infringing on people’s civil liberties, they added.
The precinct tarnished the image of the police, because it did not rectify its mistakes following the incident, they added.
The precinct required its officers to use handcuffs and shackles when questioning suspects at the scene of an offense, which is a breach of the Police Power Exercise Act (警察職權行使法) and the Act Governing the Use of Police Weapons (警械使用條例), they said.
Questioning suspects in areas accessible to the public also contravenes the procedures, which are not to be made public, they said.
Apart from censuring the Jhongli Police Precinct, the Control Yuan also requested that the Taoyuan Police Department review its supervisory role.
The members called for police to keep up with the times, and take public safety and policing procedures as seriously as job performance.
They also requested the National Police Agency to supervise police departments, and urged them to follow criteria for spot-checks, use handcuffs properly, avoid questioning suspects in public, provide adequate training, and protect the freedom and safety of the public and the police.
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