04.07.06
Policing Taiwan
Michael Turton has an excellent overview of how the police operate in Taiwan. Michael took notes from a presentation by Jeff Martin - who spent several years studying and working with the police, and so has a real understanding of how things work. The whole article is worth a read, but given the focus of this blog on politics, a few bits stood out:
The policemen have several jobs. First, they have to update the census records. Second, they have to take care of the “Special Projects” invented by politicians, like crackdowns on drunk driving or street vendors in a certain area. How many of these special projects are there in force at the moment in Taipei county? Two hundred. “So there are two hundred things they are supposed to be doing especially intensely,” he said, laughing. On top of that the police have to deal with the stuff of citizen complaints — traffic accidents, crimes, etc.
Politicians getting in the way rather than helping. I’m shocked. Absolutely shocked.
“You have to recognize that the policeman himself is just a pawn in this much larger political game,” Jeff said. The policeman have no particular stake in the theft of your motorcycle, but somewhere above their heads is “some idiot who has said that if the crime rate goes up, I will resign.” There is no way to effectively decrease the scooter theft rate, and no way to increase the recovery rate. The only way to influence the crime rate short of a miracle, is to influence the crime statistics.
So does Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) count as just such an idiot, given his ‘war on crime’ from a few weeks ago? Well, the good news is that Su explicitly said he didn’t want to be judged on statistics, which is the problem described above. Unfortunately, the problems described by Jeff are so fundamental and deeply-seated that it would take a minor miracle to change things. I still think that focusing on social order is a good idea for Su - but it’s a question of how he tries to improve things. Perhaps he should hire Jeff Martin to help.
James said,
April 8, 2006 at 5:16 pm
Do you think it’s realistic for them to hire Jeff Martin? Does Taiwan’s government do that kind of thing? It was pretty cool the police let him hang out for a few years.
If the police system is really modeled after Japan’s, Japan might be a good resource for ideas on how to improve Japan’s system.
I think though, crime in Taiwan is a very non-American animal. People just don’t normally commit as much violent crime here, and if you look at something like recycling, the incentives are really low, but people are crazy about recycling. The usual Western economic view: chance of being caught * punishment > reward of crime :might not be applicable in the same way in Taiwan. Outright fines and actually pulling over bad motorists would help I’m sure, but for a homogenous country with some kind of connection between education and public behavior, maybe a public campaign plus enlisting the Buddhist and Christian religious organizations would be more effective. Really, the reward for following the laws on recycling is so small, and I am amazed people are so good about it here.
David said,
April 10, 2006 at 12:07 pm
Realistic? No. I’d be amazed if they hired a waiguoren to tell them what they’re doing wrong
However, there must be plenty of Taiwanese who could do a similar job - hell, get a few bright experienced policemen to point out what effect any proposal would have.
I agree completely that Taiwan’s problems are very different to e.g. America’s. If I was feeling glib I’d say that America has got a problem with crime, while Taiwan has got a problem with policing.
On recycling: there *is* a financial incentive - in Taipei at least. The ordinary garbage bag has a heavy tax, so there’s incentive to put as little in it as possible (i.e. by recycling stuff). Don’t know what the situation is outside the capital though …
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