When Police Follow the Rules, Human Rights Are Protected: Officer, Please Listen to Me

Police officers are on the front lines of law enforcement, yet procedural errors frequently occur during execution—such as illegal evidence collection, suppression of cases, human rights violations, and breaches of the principle of non-disclosure of investigations. These issues lead to a lack of public confidence in police operations. On the eve of Police Day, the Police Reform Alliance expresses the heartfelt demands reflected by the public:

1. Emphasize Criminal Human Rights

Strictly observe the principle of non-disclosure of investigations. News reporting on criminal investigation cases must comply with the principle of non-publicity of investigations, safeguard the privacy and reputation of parties and related individuals, and strictly adhere to the regulations of competent authorities. Regarding the cases of police violations of the principle of non-disclosure of investigations collected and reported by the Judicial Reform Foundation on May 30, a guarantee must be made to no longer proactively provide evidence-collection videotapes to the media, and to investigate the responsibility for the leakage of such videotapes.

Implement equality and eradicate discrimination. Correct past stereotypes regarding ethnicity and gender! Everyone possesses multiple identities; being an indigenous person, coming from a single-parent family, identifying as gay or lesbian, or being a foreign national is not an original sin. Stop harming criminal suspects and victims with stereotypes.

Eliminate entrapment-style investigations. Stop framing people through entrapment-style investigations! Instances of police conducting investigations by entrapping people through online chatting are endless. Not only do they fail to maintain public order, but they also frequently involve sex. Due to social stigmatization surrounding sex, even when parties have not broken the law—especially sexual minorities such as gay individuals—they dare not protest against inappropriate police investigative methods due to concerns about their identity, which constitutes a major infringement upon netizens' rights.

Truly safeguard parties' rights to legal counsel. Police should proactively and clearly read out the rights to which parties are entitled, and must not lock the lawyer hired by a party outside the door! Retaining a lawyer is a right belonging to the party, not a favor granted by the police! In addition to verifying the propriety of police law enforcement and procedural legality, the presence of a lawyer actually assists in communication between the police and the party.

Improve the shortage of interrogation rooms in police stations. The National Police Agency should comprehensively establish interrogation rooms in all police stations, with digital audio and video recordings retained as evidence throughout the entire interrogation process. First, this will prevent illegal or improper interrogations; second, it will prevent parties from falsely accusing the police.

2. Eradicate the Suppression of Cases

Promote standard operating procedures for police duties to the public. The National Police Agency should produce promotional short films and manuals on standard operating procedures for police duties such as performing police inspections, identity checks, breathalyzers, accepting crime reports, and handling traffic accidents. This allows the public to know how to request handling from police agencies when encountering incidents, and how police agencies will handle them, thereby establishing positive police-community interaction.

Concise, people-friendly crime-reporting procedures and statement-taking. The National Police Agency should uniformly simplify the taking of crime-reporting statements from victims and adopt standardized statement forms, reducing the distress of repeatedly recounting the victimized experience; it should also promote police visits to homes to take statements for crime-reporting procedures in cases such as theft. Do not let parties endure protracted crime-reporting procedures, or experience cases being suppressed due to lack of understanding of regulations, or requests and deceptions by police personnel, thereby enhancing the image and efficiency of the police in serving the public in a people-friendly manner.

Establish an active and responsible police duty attitude. Uniformed police officers should clearly display their permanent police identification codes on their chests; plainclothes police officers should proactively present business cards. This allows the public to consult the respective police officer when in doubt, or to file complaints against police officers with poor law enforcement attitudes.

In many individual cases, we often discover that problems arise in the police's investigative actions, to the extent that the subsequent investigative stage of the prosecutors and the trial process of the courts can no longer clarify the facts, thereby affecting the rights of the parties. The Police Reform Alliance will visit the Legislative Yuan and the National Police Agency regarding these demands, requesting the implementation of the aforementioned policies, hoping to correct the police's long-standing neglect of human rights and violations of the law, and allowing them to truly become the guardians of the people!

Participating Organizations

Judicial Reform Foundation, Police Reform Association, Taiwan Bar Association, Taipei Bar Association, Taiwan Association for Human Rights, Prosecutor Reform Association, Awakening Foundation, Taipei Society, Taiwan Law Society, Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline Association, Gender/Sexuality Rights Association