Advancing Justice: A Policy Proposal for the Comprehensive Reform of Taiwan's Forensic Science System

I. Introduction

Due to the increasingly novel methods of criminals and the increasingly complete legal protection of human rights, judicial police officers need to strengthen scientific investigation skills to legally collect various criminal evidences in order to increase the clearance rate of criminal cases and the conviction rate of trial results, so that suspects receive the legal sanctions they deserve. The so-called scientific investigation refers to the use of scientific instruments, techniques, and methods in the criminal procedure to conduct investigation work and collect, analyze, and appraise evidence. Scientific investigation prides itself on not relying on the confessions of suspects, but utilizing technology to launch investigations, possessing the characteristic of "finding people through objects." Scientific investigation work can be broadly divided into two categories: one is criminal forensics; the other is the application of scientific technology in investigation work, such as applying modern technology to crime scene processing, interrogation, intelligence deployment, tailing and surveillance, stolen goods recovery, wiretapping, criminal pattern analysis, criminal profiling, and the identification of criminal tools and contraband. Among them, criminal forensics is the foundation of scientific investigation. It is a science that applies scientific knowledge, technology, equipment, and methods to appraise, individualize, evaluate, and interpret various pieces of evidence, in order to reconstruct the crime process, identify criminal suspects, and provide the direction of investigation and evidence for court trials.

The fields encompassed by criminal forensics are roughly as follows:

1. Biomedical Forensics
   Including forensic pathology (i.e., forensic medicine in the narrow sense), forensic serology, forensic dentistry, forensic entomology, forensic botany, forensic psychiatry, forensic anthropology, etc.
   
2. Physical and Chemical Forensics
   
   1. Physical appraisal: such as tool mark forensics, firearm and ballistic forensics, restoration of obliterated serial numbers, impression (tire track, footwear impression, etc.) forensics, fingerprint forensics, voiceprint forensics, questioned document examination, forensic photography, material forensics, electrical and electronic forensics, engineering disaster forensics, etc.
   2. Chemical forensics: such as drug and toxicant forensics, explosive and gunshot residue forensics, arson forensics, trace evidence (such as paint chips, textile fibers, soil, hair, glass fragments, trace bodily fluid stains, animal, plant, and mineral fragments, etc.) forensics, etc.
3. Others: such as behavioral science forensics including hypnosis, lie detection, psychological profiling, etc.
   Units or organs currently engaged in criminal forensics practical work in our country include: the Institute of Forensic Medicine, Ministry of Justice; the Sixth Division of the Investigation Bureau, Ministry of Justice; the Forensics Division, Forensic Medicine Office, and Fingerprint Office under the Criminal Investigation Bureau, National Police Agency, Ministry of the Interior; the Forensics Squad of the Criminal Investigation Corps, Taipei City Police Department; the Forensics Squad of the Criminal Investigation Corps, Kaohsiung City Police Department; the Forensics Branch of the Criminal Investigation Corps, Taiwan Provincial Government Police Department (soon to be abolished due to the freezing of the provincial government); the Department of Forensic Science and Science Laboratories of the Central Police University; the Criminal Technology Support Center of the Military Police Command; the Criminal Education Group of the Military Police School; and some health units, medical institutions, and private institutions also share part of the evidence appraisal work.
   

Among the aforementioned institutions, the newly established Institute of Forensic Medicine of the Ministry of Justice not only has clear tasks and clear organizational division of labor, but also has a higher administrative level and ample budget, from which good results can be expected in the research and development, talent cultivation, and practical work of the biomedical forensics field.

In terms of physical and chemical forensics and other forensics fields, some units (such as the Central Police University) possess good teaching and research and development capabilities, but are constrained by insufficient manpower and some regulations contrary to the basic spirit of the Code of Criminal Procedure, thus having few opportunities to directly engage in evidence appraisal. Additionally, some units (such as the Criminal Investigation Bureau) shoulder the appraisal work of most evidence and have rich practical work experience, yet lack clear research and development goals, fail to cultivate senior forensic talents in the long term, and suffer from insufficient manpower and funds, making them unable to lead the improvement of national forensics standards. The remaining forensics institutions are either established for specific tasks and are unwilling or unsuited to actively participate in the research, development, and practical work of criminal forensics; or they only possess the appraisal capability for partial evidence, or due to being constrained by regulations contrary to the basic spirit of the Code of Criminal Procedure, they only serve as a nominal presence without the actual authority to participate in forensics; therefore, in terms of organizational division of labor and authority, they are unable, and in terms of capability, insufficient, to lead the research and development, talent cultivation, skill enhancement, and practical grounding of criminal forensics nationwide. In short, there are two current development bottlenecks for criminal forensics in our country: (1) The lack of a central-level forensics unit with decision-making authority and clear development plans and goals to coordinate national forensics policies and work. A few existing forensics units are affiliated with universities or colleges, while the rest are mostly set up under administrative or operational units, lacking decision-making or policy-advising power, facing severely insufficient manpower and funds, and lacking long-term development goals. (2) The lack of senior forensic talents with research and development and planning capabilities. Forensic Science is essentially an applied science, and any science needs to be based on long-term systematic research and development in order to progress, innovate, and be applied in practice. The best way to enhance research and development capabilities is through long-term rigorous academic training, such as pursuing doctoral degrees and engaging in postdoctoral research. Therefore, only by establishing an appropriate forensics unit at the appropriate government level and systematically cultivating senior forensic talents with research and development and planning capabilities in the long term can the problem of our country's criminal forensics being unable to progress and take root be fundamentally resolved.

II. Establishment of Criminal Forensics Units

The establishment of criminal forensics units should be tiered and divided by labor. The central-level criminal forensics unit should be set up under relevant ministries and commissions (such as the Ministry of the Interior or the Ministry of Justice). Its advantages include: possessing decision-making or policy-advising authority, having a relatively detached status to avoid unnecessary interference, and having an independent organizational and budgetary structure with more abundant manpower and funds. Its main work should be positioned in the research, development, planning, and practical promotion of forensics technology, while actually taking charge of the precise appraisal work of various pieces of evidence and the in-service education of forensics personnel. The nature of the institution is best suited as a national laboratory or research center, and the staff can be divided into two categories: researchers and technical personnel. The appointment and promotion of researchers should be handled in accordance with the methods of academic research institutions or university researchers or teachers, categorized into researchers (professor level), associate researchers (associate professor level), assistant researchers (assistant professor level), and research assistants (lecturer level); technical personnel should pass the national examinations and be categorized by rank according to the civil service appointment system. The total initial manpower needed is about 300 people, which can reach around 500 people after mature development. The fields and scope responsible for the research center should be based on the aforementioned physical and chemical forensics and other forensics, while biomedical forensics should be responsible by the Institute of Forensic Medicine of the Ministry of Justice. This is not only consistent with the systems of most democratic and rule-of-law countries, but also avoids overlapping frameworks and wasting national resources. Moreover, the cultivation, appointment, and remuneration of forensic medical talents are completely different from those of forensic personnel; having different units responsible can achieve the purpose of professional division of labor and avoid confusion. The research center should have subordinate divisions or laboratories. When establishing divisions (laboratories), in addition to setting up a general business division, the remaining divisions (laboratories) should set up individual divisions (laboratories) or combine several pieces of evidence appraisal according to the volume of submitted evidence, the scope of related academic fields, and their relevance. The establishment, personnel staffing, and scope of responsibilities of each division can be decided after collecting opinions from experts and scholars and gathering statistics on evidence appraisal data in recent years. The heads of the research center and each division (laboratory) should be researchers qualified as researchers (professor level). The main research and development, educational training, policy planning, precise analysis and interpretation of evidence, data processing, result interpretation, and court testimony work of each division (laboratory) should be respectively undertaken by researchers at various levels. Technical personnel are responsible for the pre-processing of evidence, equipment operation, maintenance and management of instruments and equipment, management of various consumables, clerical administration, and other technical work. In order to attract and retain talents, in addition to the normal remuneration of researchers and technical personnel, a forensics allowance (when established under the Ministry of the Interior) or judicial allowance (when established under the Ministry of Justice) should be granted by referencing the forensics personnel of police units. In addition to ensuring manpower and equipment are refined and sufficient, various analysis and processing steps should be standardized, and appropriate quality assurance measures should be established to maintain good forensics quality and standards.

Local-level laboratories should be established separately in police departments directly participating in criminal investigations, and should be independent of investigation units to avoid becoming administrative business processing units of investigation units and losing their professionalism. The manpower required for each local-level forensics unit can be adjusted slightly according to demand, and is appropriate to be around several tens of people. Personnel should primarily consist of university or master's graduates with professional training in forensic science who have passed national professional examinations. Those with potential can enter the central-level criminal forensics research center through further postdoctoral studies, so as to smooth the promotion pipeline and prevent hard-to-cultivate professional talents from transferring to other units for the sake of promotion. Local-level forensics personnel should be dedicated to the preservation and recording of crime scenes, sampling and submission of evidence for appraisal, screening tests, and preliminary appraisal work of evidence. Their manpower must be sufficient, techniques proficient, work grounded, and equipment practical. Therefore, all existing forensics units should increase manpower, upgrade staffing, and increase professional equipment, and their personnel should receive comprehensive in-service training.

The existing practical forensics units that do not belong to police agencies mentioned in the introduction should not be lightly abolished; instead, their manpower quality and quantity should be appropriately enhanced, instrument and equipment enriched, standardized forensics steps and quality assurance measures implemented, and the characteristic specialties of each unit developed, conducting benign competition with the newly established criminal forensics research center to promote progress, and serving as re-appraisal units when forensics results are disputed.

III. Cultivation of Forensics Talents

The cultivation of forensics talents can be divided into two categories: basic/mid-level talents and senior talents. Basic and mid-level talents should be primarily undertaken by the forensics department and graduate institute of the Central Police University, while general universities should also open relevant courses or departments to increase the channels for talent sources and jointly participate in research and development to stimulate progress. Senior talents should be selected from among forensics personnel with potential, with budgets allocated for government-sponsored overseas doctoral studies, which will later be partially shifted to domestic cultivation after the Central Police University establishes a doctoral program in forensics.

Before 1989, forensics talents in our country were cultivated by the Department of Criminal Police and the Criminal Science Group of the Police Administration Research Institute of the Central Police University (Police Officers' School). Because it had to concurrently account for the cultivation of investigation personnel, it could not meet the demand for high specialization. Since 1989, a separate Department of Forensic Science has been established to specialize in the cultivation of forensics talents. After its establishment, in addition to enriching equipment, teaching staff were newly hired, courses newly compiled, and research encouraged. Since 1997, a Graduate Institute of Forensic Science has also been established to enroll master's students. Currently, there are 86 faculty members and students, among whom 13 are full-time teachers, 10 hold doctoral degrees, and 2 are currently pursuing doctoral degrees. In the 1999 academic year, research projects hosted by the department's teachers from the National Science Council, the Institute of Forensic Medicine of the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of the Interior, and other units totaled 20 items. Forensics methods researched and developed over the years have partly been transferred to practical units for use. Therefore, the cultivation of basic and intermediate forensics talents can be undertaken by this department.

As for senior talents, there are currently no related doctoral programs domestically. The central-level forensics research center or its preparatory unit should survey and evaluate the types and quantities of talents needed, annually allocate budgets to send mid-to-high-level forensics personnel with development potential from various domestic criminal forensics units to countries such as Britain, the United States, Japan, Germany, and Israel to pursue doctoral degrees, so as to enhance their professional research and development capabilities and vision, which is sufficient to participate in pioneering research and development work and lead laboratories with expanded staffing scales. When allocating budgets, the government-sponsored period is best set at three to four years, and in-service personnel should be allowed to retain their positions and salaries, but must sign an agreement requiring them to serve for at least a certain number of years upon completion of their studies, so as not to waste public funds. Currently, the National Science Council, the Ministry of Education, the National Police Agency, and the Central Police University have not budgeted to select and send people abroad for studies on the grounds that there are too many sources of doctoral degree holders and supply exceeds demand. In fact, because the job market for forensic science is small, very few people self-fund to pursue doctoral degrees abroad; only by relying on the financial power of the state is it possible to cultivate senior talents in related professions. In addition, there are still personnel without a forensics education background working in forensics units. To enhance professional skills, these personnel should be encouraged to take credits at the Department of Forensic Science of the Central Police University or transfer to other units; other personnel with professional backgrounds should also participate in various academic seminars at any time to absorb new knowledge. Furthermore, various domestic criminal forensics units should regularly hold in-service seminars and fully cooperate with forensics teaching and research and development units to maintain forensics standards and enhance forensics skills at any time.

To comprehensively enhance forensics standards and prevent forensics units from forming a closed system leading to rigidity, in addition to the Graduate Institute of Forensic Science of the Central Police University continuing to recruit general university graduates upholding existing principles, relevant departments in general universities, such as chemistry and pharmacy departments, can also open relevant courses or even establish relevant departments, with the hope of stimulating progress through benign competition. Otherwise, if general university graduates without professional training are only recruited through examinations to serve in forensics units, and fail to be supplemented by an appropriate period of pre-service professional training, it may create the illusion of openness while actually increasing useless redundant personnel and causing internal management problems.

Ideally, all forensics personnel should be graduates of bachelor's or master's programs in relevant departments, pass professional national examinations, enter forensics units to receive appropriate pre-service training, and start from basic forensics technical personnel. After working for a period of time, they should be government-funded to pursue advanced studies domestically or abroad to obtain higher academic degrees, be promoted to higher positions, or transfer into the researcher system to continue engaging in forensics work, and be gradually promoted through a promotion method similar to that of university teachers. To achieve this goal, research personnel needed to establish the central-level forensics research center should be cultivated prior to its establishment; it should not be established hastily, utilizing personnel without sufficient academic backgrounds to fill positions prematurely; otherwise, it will hinder progress, leaving an institution in name only without practical effectiveness. Meanwhile, at the initial establishment of the center, positions should not be fully staffed; appropriate medium- and senior-level research personnel vacancies should be left for the promotion of grassroots personnel, which is conducive to the future gradual turnover of personnel and the inheritance of experience.

Specific Recommendations

1. Establishment Form: It is recommended to adopt an independent, decentralized forensics center, such as simultaneously establishing relevant forensics institutions in the Investigation Bureau, the Criminal Investigation Bureau, universities, and a central-level legal foundation.
   
2. Talent Sources and Personnel Qualifications: Initially, to build the foundation of the forensics center, the national forensics center can employ persons with civil servant qualifications, whose seniority can continue to accumulate and who can transfer to other public agencies to encourage people to be willing to invest in this profession.
   
3. Basic Competency Training for Criminal Police: Most police officers nowadays lack the ability to preserve and process evidence at the scene, causing difficulties for scientific case handling. It is recommended to start from the establishment of "professional ability in crime scene investigation" and refer to SOPs of advanced European and American countries to establish our country's "Standard Operating Procedures" for crime scene investigation. Related supporting measures include: configuring 4 to 8 personnel dedicated to crime scene investigation in police precincts of Grade A or above, etc.
   
4. Planned Deployment of Personnel for Overseas Advanced Studies: For professional talents lacking domestically such as lie detection, wiretapping, and voiceprint analysis, it is recommended to dispatch them to study abroad, receive foreign certification, and require them to bear the obligation of returning to China to teach for a certain number of years.