The National Police Administration (NPA, 警政署) said yesterday that police officers have freedom of choice to join any party but political affiliations shouldn't interfere with police work.
The NPA's remark came in response to media reports yesterday that the DPP is inviting civil servants to join the party, as President Chen Shui-bian (
A local evening newspaper yesterday reported that the DPP wants to recruit the NPA's Deputy Director-General Hsieh Yin-tang (謝銀黨).
The report said that DPP officials are also contacting Keelung City Police Headquarters Director Wu Chen-chi (吳振吉), Senior NPA Councilor Ho Kuo-jung (何國榮), Taoyuan County Police Department Director Hou You-yi (侯友宜) and Presidential Office Security Department Chief Hsieh Fan-fan (謝芬芬) in this regard. Hsieh is currently the top female police officer in Taiwan.
The report says the DPP is expecting an estimated 10,000 police officers to join the party by the end of this year.
According to the NPA, 99 percent of all police officers are currently KMT members.
"That's because the KMT was the only choice for police officers a few decades ago. Joining the KMT before graduating from the police academy has also become a tradition," a senior official at the NPA told the Taipei Times.
However, NPA statistics show that nearly 40 percent of the officers left the KMT when the party lost the presidential election two years ago. Among the 80,000 police officers in Taiwan, 30,000 say they do not belong to any political party.
"Regarding the news article about the DPP's attempt to persuade as many police officers as possible to join the party, we won't take it too seriously," the senior officer said.
"Everybody's free to choose when it comes to political issues. However, a police officer is a public servant which means an officer must stay neutral and his job shouldn't be affected by any politics-related issues either. That's the bottom line." the senior officer concluded.
SEND A MESSAGE: Sinking the amphibious assault ship, the lead warship of its class, is meant to show China the US Navy is capable of sinking their ships, an analyst said The US and allied navies plan to sink a 40,000-tonne ship at the latest Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise to simulate defeating a Chinese amphibious assault on Taiwan. This year’s RIMPAC — the 29th iteration of the world’s largest naval exercise — involves the US, 28 partners, more than 25,000 personnel, 40 warships, three submarines and more than 150 aircraft operating in and around Hawaii from yesterday to Aug. 1, the US Navy said in a press release. The major components of the event include multidomain warfare exercises in multiship surface engagements, anti-submarine warfare and multi-axis defense of a carrier strike
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
The airspace around Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) is to be closed for an hour on July 25 and July 23 respectively, due to the Han Kuang military exercises, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The annual exercise is to be held on Taiwan proper and its outlying islands from July 22 to 26. During last year’s exercise, the military conducted anti-aircraft landing drills at the Taoyuan airport for the first time, for which a one-hour no-fly ban was issued. Based on a live-fire bulletin sent out by the Maritime and Port Bureau, the nation’s
CROSS-BORDER CRIME: The suspects cannot be charged with cybercrime in Indonesia as their targets were in Malaysia, an Indonesian immigration director said Indonesian immigration authorities have detained 103 Taiwanese after a raid at a villa on Bali, officials said yesterday. They were accused of misusing their visas and residence permits, and are suspected of possible cybercrimes, Safar Muhammad Godam, director of immigration supervision and enforcement at the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights told reporters at a news conference. “The 103 foreign nationals stayed at the villa and conducted suspicious activities, which we suspect are activities related to cybercrime activities,” he said, presenting laptops and routers at the news conference. Godam said Indonesian authorities cannot charge them with conducting cybercrime. “During the inspection, we