The National Security Bureau (NSB) today said it found three shortcomings regarding last week’s controversy when Taoyuan airport store employees rushed to take a photograph with officials and the national baseball team, which had just returned from Japan as the Premier12 champions.
On Monday last week, several employees of Tasa Meng, which runs the airport duty-free stores, stood in front in a photo with Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) and the baseball team, while other employees waved banners and advertisements in the back.
Photo: CNA
The stunt was heavily criticized, with several lawmakers raising concerns over security lapses that enabled the employees to rush up to the vice president and pose a potential danger to officials.
In a written report to the Legislative Yuan, the NSB found that the airport welcoming event suffered from poor route planning, inadequate control over group photos and poor on-site adaptability.
On the first point, the report said that the Special Service Center, which provides security for Hsiao, failed to take into account the lack of space and large number of people in the area.
This led to disorganization and negatively affected public perception, the report said.
Regarding inadequate control of group photo arrangements, the delegation had people to guide the photo session, the report said.
However, they lacked clear directives and the security guards were not paying proper attention to people entering and leaving the area, which allowed the Tasa Meng employees to push through to the front as photos were being taken, it added.
These employees did not pose a danger, but did disrupt the event, it said.
On the final point, the report said that on-site agents failed to respond properly by repositioning or redeploying personnel once the disruption had taken place.
The NSB promised it would change how it would manage future events to minimize potential risks and include the incident in its training for agents.
These changes would be applied to the planning of routes and stopping points, and include avoiding high-traffic areas and demarcating sensitive areas with velvet ropes if necessary, it said.
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