When Police Follow the Rules, Human Rights Are Protected—Please Listen to Us, Officers

Police officers are on the front lines of law enforcement, yet procedural flaws frequently occur: issues such as illegal evidence gathering, covering up cases, human rights violations, and breaching the principle of non-disclosure of investigations leave the public with little confidence in police performance. On the eve of Police Day, the Police Reform Alliance wishes to voice the concerns of the public:

Value Criminal Human Rights

Strictly adhere to the principle of non-disclosure of investigations. The handling of news regarding criminal investigations must comply with the principle of non-disclosure of investigations, protect the privacy and reputation of parties and relevant individuals, and strictly observe the regulations set by competent authorities. Regarding the cases of police violations of non-disclosure of investigations collected and reported by the Judicial Reform Foundation on May 30, it must be guaranteed that evidence-gathering videotapes will no longer be proactively provided to the media, and accountability must be pursued 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, being gay, or being a foreign national is not a crime. Stop harming criminal suspects and victims with stereotypes.

Eliminate entrapment. Stop framing people through entrapment! Instances of police using online chatting to entrap people are endless, which not only fails to maintain public order but usually involves sexuality. Due to social stigmas surrounding sexuality, even when individuals have not broken the law—especially sexual minorities such as gay individuals—they dare not resist improper police enforcement methods out of concerns regarding their identity, which constitutes a severe infringement upon netizens' rights.

Ensure the right to counsel for parties involved. The police must proactively and clearly inform parties of their due rights, and must not bar a party's chosen lawyer from the door! Requesting a lawyer is a right belonging to the party involved, not a favor granted by the police. Beyond ensuring the fairness of police enforcement and procedural legality, the presence of a lawyer actually assists in communication between the police and the party.

Address the shortage of interrogation rooms in police stations. The National Police Agency is urged to comprehensively establish interrogation rooms in all police stations, with digital audio and video recording of the entire interrogation process preserved as evidence. First, this will prevent illegal or improper interrogations; second, it will prevent parties from making false accusations against the police.

Eliminate the Cover-up of Cases

Educate the public on standard operating procedures for police duties. The National Police Agency is requested to produce promotional videos and manuals detailing the standard operating procedures for police officers performing duties such as inspections, questioning, breathalyzer tests, taking reports, and handling traffic accidents. This allows the public to know how to seek assistance from police agencies when encountering incidents, and how police agencies will handle them, thereby establishing positive police-public interactions.

Simplify and humanize the reporting process and the taking of statements. The National Police Agency is requested to uniformly simplify the taking of victim statements when reporting crimes by making statement forms standardized; alleviate the trauma of repeatedly recounting the victimized experience; and promote services such as police visiting homes to take statements for crimes like theft, thereby completing the reporting procedure. Prevent parties from having to endure lengthy reporting procedures, or having cases covered up due to a lack of understanding of regulations, or being entrusted or misled by police personnel, thereby enhancing the image and efficiency of police in serving the public in a people-friendly manner.

Establish a proactive and responsible duty attitude among police officers. 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 specific officer when in doubt, or to file complaints against officers with poor enforcement attitudes.

In many individual cases, we often find that problems arise during the police's investigative actions, to the extent that subsequent investigations by prosecutors and court trials fail to clarify the facts, thereby affecting the rights of the parties involved. The Police Reform Alliance will visit the Legislative Yuan and the National Police Agency regarding these demands to urge the implementation of the aforementioned policies, hoping to correct the police's long-standing disregard for human rights and violations of the law, so they may 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
Fairness Society
Taiwan Law Society
Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline Association
Association for Gender and Sexuality Rights