Neighborhood Guardians--Precinct Police Officers

It's eight in the morning and many people are rushing to work. Panchiao City police officer Chi Tse-min has already been on patrol for some time. He arrives at an old traditional market, teeming with people and vehicles. Thefts by pickpockets, and street vendors illegally occupying space on roads, are common occurrences. Just as he reaches the entrance, Chi hears shouts in the distance, where a cluster of people has gathered. He rushes over to find out what's happening. As it turns out, vendors trying to claim space for selling their wares have gotten into a dispute. The two parties' recriminations are increasingly vociferous, and the atmosphere is tense.

Chi first requests that the market's administrative committee make a judgment, as there are clear regulations governing the rental of vendor spaces within the market. But vendors are accustomed to encroaching on a space before its legitimate tenant has arrived. Chi urges calm: "Keeping things peaceful is good for business. Don't scare your customers away." With Chi's intervention, the two vendors end their standoff and the market returns to its usual more peaceable bustle.

Such a seemingly trivial matter, though it seems hardly worthy of mention, may lead to a bloody incident if not handled in a timely manner. With many years of experience as a policeman, Chi takes no chances.

Unreasonable expectations

People typically imagine a police officer's work to be largely reactive in nature. Police are pictured waiting for orders at the police station, and then going out to enforce the law when an incident is reported. The reality, however, is different. Police work is carried out every day around the clock, and involves a variety of tasks: directing traffic, patrolling a beat, working the night shift, or exploring their patch to better understand the habits of residents. This work is planned a month in advance and set down in shift schedules. The work of precinct officers differs from that of criminal police, who perform investigations and arrest criminal suspects. Part of a precinct officer's work is to pass information on public order up the ranks, and this involves a close understanding of the lifestyle habits of precinct residents.

The work of neighborhood police officers is never done. They must work 12 hours a day. Besides their regular duties, they often receive reports of incidents both major and minor from the public. Following these up means everything from helping find a lost dog, to dealing with drivers trying to claim public parking spaces as their private domain, resolving disputes stemming from street vendor fraud or trash dumped indiscriminately by a neighbor, or stopping drivers to breath test them for alcohol. Handling other violations such as street vendors setting up in unauthorized areas or illegal dumping of waste are not the responsibility of the police, but are handled by city or country administrative offices and environmental protection bureaus. However, the officer who receives the report must still go to the scene to follow up. On one occasion, Chi received a call from the owner of a car that had been towed for illegal parking, demanding he drive it back. Chi didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

However, what Chi finds most trying are temporary assignments to back up other units--for example, maintaining public order, checking for vote buying, standing guard at polling stations during elections, or supporting the Criminal Investigation Brigade in pursuing felony suspects. Chen Chin-hsing, a kidnapper and murderer who caused a huge disruption in social order when he was at large, was one of the suspects whom precinct officers were enlisted to help apprehend.

Police officers face many dangers in their work, so they need the right skills to deal with them. All police districts provide twice-yearly training in arrest and mobile response techniques, to help assure officers' safety.

Night shifts

Chi recounts that after Chen killed his teenage kidnap victim Pai Hsiao-yen in April 1997, the whole country was in turmoil. At the time, Chi was working in Taipei County's Tucheng Precinct. News came from headquarters that Chen and his accomplices might be hiding out in the Mt. Kuanyin area. The Tucheng Precinct dispatched 200 officers, assigning them into three shifts of eight hours each. They had to take turns wearing close-fitting bulletproof vests that weighed two kilograms, making the officers sweat profusely. Still, they had to make a painstaking search of the mountain area. Searching by night, in the inky darkness on the mountain, was particularly exhausting. Besides trying to fend off mosquitoes, they had to fight to stay awake.

This support action went on for six weeks. But as it happened, Chen and his accomplices were apprehended in a hotel in downtown Taipei. While the Tucheng officers were combing the mountains in the hot sun, the suspects were caught enjoying a massage in an air-conditioned room.

After his many years on the force, Chi Tse-min is keenly aware of the social changes that affect police work. "Modern police officers must rely on their wits to solve cases. They can't handle the job with simple brute force like in the past," says Chi. Many older residents of the area like to gather and gamble in neighborhood activity centers, in an unoccupied market stall, or in a park. Although it's purely for fun, it is illegal. When Chi sees such a scene, he generally urges the gamblers to leave, rather than handing out fines to stop the activity.

Formerly a career soldier, Chi says police officers must think of the public as part of their families. They cannot apply the law rigidly, but rather must use both carrot and stick, depending on the particular case. On the one hand, this approach can avoid damaging the emotional bond between police and public, while on the other it avoids allegations of abuse of power or police brutality. This is especially true today, with members of the public having greater basic legal knowledge, and a better understanding of their own rights. Today's police officer must have an adequate EQ to deal with the "challenges" presented by the public.

Three approaches

A greater threat to public order than seniors' illegal gambling is posed by large numbers of mainland Chinese women who come to Taiwan under the pretext of marriage, but soon disappear to work illegally, or join the sex trade. This is one of the more sensitive problems precinct officers have to handle.

When patrolling their neighborhoods, police have customarily visited three types of households and businesses at regular intervals. The first type consists of households or businesses headed by known members of criminal gangs or convicted felons. To watch for any continuing criminal activities, police officers used to visit such households twice a month, though now this has been changed to once monthly. The second type, smaller hotels and guesthouses, and shops that specialize in repairs or parts sales for cars or motorbikes, are checked once every three months, to counter prostitution and vehicle theft, respectively. The third type consists of regular law-abiding citizens. The police check the number of people in each household once a year, though more frequent checks are made if a spouse is from mainland China.

"If criminal cases in a policeman's precinct decrease, that's the biggest reward," reflects Chi. Taipei County's police resources are limited, and this is the biggest problem that affects police morale. Compared to resource-rich Taipei City, Taipei County has just half as many officers at 4,000, even though they have to cover a geographical area eight times the size of Taipei City and with 1 million more people. Each police officer must serve 1,500 residents, a truly fearsome burden.

"Sometimes you have to rely on informants to provide inside information that lets you keep on top of what's going on in your precinct," says Chi. He himself has eight informants in the market and in streetside shops. They are mostly reformed gang members on probation, or residents eager to contribute to the public interest. When patrolling his beat, Chi frequently patronizes their shops, or volunteers his assistance. After establishing a relationship, he asks that they report to him anytime there are any suspicious figures frequenting the area or any unexpected incidents. Chi has depended on their helpful information to locate many drug users hiding out in abandoned houses or unemployed vagabonds with no place to go. He then reports them to rehabilitation centers or the Bureau of Social Welfare, so that these people living on the fringes of society can get the help they need, while also lowering the risk of crime in his precinct.

While on patrol, Chi Tse-min stops to chat with shop owners and build a relationship that he can draw on to keep tabs on goings-on in the precinct.

A six-star plan

Conditions are very different at the Chungshan 1st Precinct station on Taipei City's Chunghsiao West Road. Surrounded by political, cultural and educational establishments in the Po Ai Special District, with their many security guards, the station has relatively few gang-related incidents, sex industry offenses, or murders to deal with. Its work is mostly concerned with minor problems such as illegal parking, or vehicles being stolen because the owner left the keys in the ignition. The only serious incident that occurred here was the mass protest following the presidential election in 2004.

Seven-year Chungcheng 1st Precinct veteran Yang Jen-i recalls how exhausted he was on March 20, the day of the election, having worked from five in the morning until ballot counting was concluded at seven or eight in the evening. When news of the mass protest arrived, he had to go to the scene and help maintain order. The protest dragged on for seven days, and all the precinct's officers had to spend their rest time or specially assigned shifts there, in addition to continuing their regular duties. On the final day, when the protesters were forced to leave, the atmosphere was tense. Many agitated and exhausted elderly people were unwilling to leave voluntarily, and had to be bodily led or carried away. Police had to try to soothe the protesters' inflamed emotions while urging them to leave, all the while withstanding curses and blows without retaliating. The image of this scene of confrontation between police and public remains imprinted on Yang's mind.

On the day of our visit, Yang happened to be patrolling his beat. He had arrived at an earth god temple in Tungmen Borough to visit the local community watch group. The formation of this voluntary organization was spurred by the Executive Yuan's "Six-Star Plan for Healthy Communities." Tungmen's borough warden specially recruited 40 civic-minded residents. Every day, they take turns patrolling the borough's neighborhoods, and if they discover a building or apartment door left open, they close it to prevent thieves from gaining easy entry.

Small and densely populated, Taiwan offers little opportunity for using flashy police cars. However, the ability to respond quickly and access to safety equipment are what police officers most need.

Paparazzi syndrome

In Taipei neighborhoods, the sight of residents working so closely with police officers has led paradoxically to a lessening of respect for police authority. Yang says that nowadays the public is apt to file complaints about officers assigned to a case showing a poor attitude, or about the increasing number of unresolved cases. This situation forces every police officer to carry an audio recorder to preserve a record of how cases are handled, to protect themselves against false accusations.

"The spread of a paparazzi culture has put some distance between us and neighborhood residents," laments Yang. In the past, officers often shared tea and conversation with locals to build personal relationships and obtain information about local conditions. However, now if investigative reporters spot police officers socializing with residents or being treated as guests, they take photographs that may be published in newspapers. Without bothering to find out the details, these reporters simply assume that the police officers are neglecting their duties or seeking bribes, leaving the officers vulnerable to disciplinary action. This makes them feel they can only interact with residents furtively.

The image of modern police has shifted from that of intimidating authority figures, to one of public servants who interact more closely with people to protect their safety. As residents live in security, they ought not to forget to thank these guardians of our public order.

Policing has become a service that "puts the customer first" in these times when human rights are accorded greater respect. Even a bill requesting payment may evoke an intense protest from the recipient.