The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday accused the National Police Agency (NPA) of inefficient gun control and said that Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) was placing party considerations over those of the nation in addressing crime.
Su dismissed the top-ranking police officers in Kaohsiung and Tainan last year, citing a lack of concrete action against crime, KMT Culture and Communications Committee director-general Alicia Wang (王育敏) said, adding that despite the move, crime rates have risen since Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) took office on Aug 24 last year.
Chen on Aug. 16 last year won a by-election prompted by the June 7 recall of former Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜).
Photo: Shih Hsiao-kuang, Taipei Times
While Han was mayor, Minister of the Interior Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said that “the people cannot prosper if they could not live in safety” and had visited Kaohsiung to oversee police matters, Wang said.
Hsu’s change in attitude toward Chen seems to suggest that party interests come before the country, Wang added.
Su is breaching Executive Yuan internal regulations by not convening national safety meetings every two months, committee deputy director-general Huang Tzu-che (黃子哲) said.
In his two years and three months as premier, Su has only convened the meeting five times, as opposed to the eight times that former premier William Lai (賴清德) had convened them during his one-year-and-four-month term, he said.
KMT Kaohsiung City Councilor Chiu Yu-hsuang (邱于軒) called on Su to hold Chen to the same standards as he did Han in assessing Kaohsiung’s safety ratings.
Su has tapped Hsu and NPA Director-General Chen Ja-chin (陳家欽) to oversee efforts to curb crime in New Taipei City and Kaohsiung, Executive Yuan spokesman Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) said.
Police efforts to combat crime has risen 32 percentage points from 48 percent in 2010 to 80 percent last year, Lo said, citing National Chung Cheng University data.
The government will continue to work hard to keep the public safe, Lo added.
Additional reporting by Lee Hsin-fang
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