While a possible personnel shortage was a major issue at the time of the stabbings in Taipei Main Station on Friday last week, as no metro police officers were deployed at that MRT station, a scheduling gap was an even more important culprit in the attacker’s ability to get away unimpeded from the station, according to Taipei City Councilor Yu Shu-hui (游淑慧).
According to a Taipei MRT report, 27-year-old Chang Wen (張文) entered the MRT’s Taipei Main Station via the M8 entrance at 5:23pm and proceeded to throw smoke grenades and stab people at random, killing one and injuring three. Chang then changed clothes and made his way through the MRT concourse and railway waiting areas before entering the underground Zhongshan Metro Mall at 5:30pm.
Rapid Transit Division police officers had not arrived at the station when the suspect fled toward his next destination — the Eslite Spectrum Nanxi department store near Zhongshan MRT Station, where he killed two people and injured several more before falling to his death from the sixth floor of the building while being pursued by police.
Photo: CNA
With no officers deployed at Taipei Main Station when the attacks took place, officers had to be deployed from Zhongshan Station using the MRT, the division said in a written response to media queries.
According to the division, the Taipei MRT covers 117 stations and carries more than 2 million passengers a day, but has only 80 police officers on duty in the field per shift.
Police patrols are scheduled on a staggered basis to ensure a rapid response across the system, the division said.
Yu disagreed.
“This is clearly not a staggered arrangement,” Yu said in an interview with the Central News Agency. “It was a gap in coverage created by offset scheduling.”
Yu said that Taipei MRT police have two types of duties — patrol and fixed-post — with two officers assigned to each.
“All four positions were off-duty at 5pm that day,” she said, and the next shift did not begin until 6pm.
Wang Po-chi (王伯頎), a professor in Ming Chuan University’s (MCU) Department of Criminal Justice, said that the 5pm-6pm hour is a peak period when no such gap in coverage should theoretically occur.
While the one-hour gap was concerning, Wang said, it was not entirely unexpected because the Taipei MRT network is highly dispersed and police resources are limited.
The Taipei MRT spans Taipei and New Taipei City, and all 117 stations fall under the jurisdiction of the Rapid Transit Division.
Because officers patrol multiple stations using the MRT, it takes time to reach incidents that occur several stations away.
Yu said that it takes on average about nine minutes for the metro police to arrive at the scene of an incident.
Further complicating operations at Taipei Main Station in particular is its complex structure because it combines the MRT, the regular rail system and high-speed rail system, Wang said.
Three police departments — the Rapid Transit Division, the Railway Police Bureau and the Taipei City Police Department — share jurisdiction within different parts of the station, which can delay reporting and tracking, Wang said.
Chang Hui-chieh (章惠傑), an assistant professor in MCU’s Department of Criminal Justice, suggested that all police departments hold joint drills to establish a response mechanism for dealing with a random attack.
The drills should also include the public to teach people how to protect themselves before police arrive.
In the immediate aftermath of last week’s attacks, the Rapid Transit Division increased the number of deployed officers to 320 from 80 to deal with the shortage, the Rapid Transit Division said.
Samuel Lin (林書立), an assistant professor in MCU’s Department of Criminal Justice, said short-term increases in personnel can cause fatigue and do not solve underlying issues, and that technology might be a better option.
He suggested that artificial intelligence (AI) surveillance, tracking systems and scenario simulations could enhance overall security.
Yu said the city plans to upgrade surveillance cameras at major traffic metro stations by opting for AI-integrated cameras, which are capable of detecting objects resembling knives or firearms and identifying abnormal human behavior.
The AI network, expected to be implemented from next year, would alert police and track suspicious people, helping offset personnel limitations, Yu said.
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