Community Policing in Taipei

1. Community Policing in Taipei An International Perspective Sandy (Yu-Lan) Yeh, Ph.D. Director of Continuing Education & Training Central Police University Taiwan, ROC

2. Introduction

3. COMMON CHALLENGES • rapid change in social and demographic patterns • crime & fear of crime • drugs • urban decay • ====> COMMUNITY POLICING

4. MODERN POLICING • 1829: Sir Peel founded modern policing • Early 1900s : a public force with specific organizational structures==>known as “Political Era”

5. POLITICAL ERA

6. POLITICAL ERA FUNCTIONS: • crime prevention and control • maintenance of public order • providing a wide variety of social services.

7. POLITICAL ERA ROLE • served as a link between the politician and community • relied heavily on foot patrol and face-to-face contact with citizen

8. POLITICAL ERA STRENGTH • the foot patrol integrated police into neighborhoods they served, and the community believed that police patrol helped to prevent crimes from happening and to solve them when they occurred.

9. POLITICAL ERA WEAKNESS • the intimacy with community and the decentralized organization design resulted in several drawbacks of policing: corruption, inefficiency, and disorganization.

10. REFORM ERA To remedy the weaknesses of policing in the political era, O. W. Wilson launched the first shift of the policing paradigm by systematically testing the ideas and theories in police administration in 1960s.

11. PROFESSIONAL MODEL (TRADITIONAL POLICING)

12. TRADITIONAL POLICING EMPHASES • rapidly responding to calls for service • arresting offenders • preventive patrol • increased police visibility

13. TRADITIONAL POLICING CHARACTERISTICS • quantifiable indicators were created to measure police officers’ effectiveness • more advanced technologies, efficient communication, and mobility were utilized • tighter management through centralized command and control systems

14. TRADITIONAL POLICING IMPRESSION • mobility • power • conspicuous presence • control of officers • professional distance from citizens

15. TRADITIONAL POLICING DIFFICULTIES • Regardless of the quantitative indicators used to measure police effectiveness, police failed to meet expectations regarding their capacity to prevent or solve crime.

16. TRADITIONAL POLICING DIFFICULTIES • Fear of crime rose dramatically in cities regardless of the actual level of crime (crime rates).

17. TRADITIONAL POLICING DIFFICULTIES • Police failed to play an impartial role, as evidenced by increasing reports of police mistreatment and brutality, especially to minority citizens.

18. TRADITIONAL POLICING DIFFICULTIES • Being more efficiency driven, police spent less and less time with their clients, and created an image of being indifferent and distant to people.

19. TRADITIONAL POLICING DIFFICULTIES • Some cities found themselves in fiscal difficulties and could not sustain their financial support for police to improve and update their equipment and personnel.

20. RISING OF COMMUNITY POLICING

21. COMMUNITY POLICING EARLY EFFORTS • foot patrol • mini-station • neighborhood watch • team policing • problem solving oriented policing

22. COMMUNITY POLICING GOALS • reduce high crime rate • reduce racial conflict • reduce fear of crime • reduce disorder • enhance quality of life

23. COMMUNITY POLICING DEFINITION A renewed philosophy of policing, based on the concept that police officers and private citizens, working together in creative ways, can help solve contemporary problems related to crime, fear of crime, social and physical disorder, and neighborhood decay

24. COMMUNITY POLICING JOINT EFFORTS OF BIG SIX • police department • community • elected civic officials • business community • other agencies • media

25. COMMUNITY POLICING WHAT IS? • partnership • an idea for the time • a practical approach to problems • getting back to people

26. Community Policing Traditional Policing Problem solving basis Incident driven basis Proactive (reemphasis on crime prevention) Reactive(the ability to clear crime) Long term effort Short term perspective Department-wide consent and commitment Individual capacity Permanent beat assignment Rotating beat assignment (mobility) Responsible as a team, all the time Responsible for activities during duty time Focus on citizen satisfaction Focus on handling the calls for service Officer\citizen empowerment Top-down decision making Decentralized autonomy Centralized control and command Measurement officers’ ability to solve problem and to interact with citizens Over-quantified performance measurement

27. POLICING IN TAIWAN

28. POLICING IN TAIWAN BRIEF HISTORY • a Chinese + Japanese co-design • long-existing community officer system • Koban vs. Jin-Chin-Chu • police operation district (POD)

29. POLICING IN TAIWAN PROFILE • population: 22.3 million • area: 36188 km2 • 76,000 police officers

30. POLICING IN TAIWAN POLICE’S STATISTICS • 2 municipal police departments (Taipei and Kaohsiung) • 23 police bureaus in each county and city Respectively • 151 precincts corresponding to township • 1568 substations, and 15,482 POD

31. POLICING IN TAIWAN MISSIONS OF POD OFFICER • develop roots into community • promote efficiency • more flexible administration • more effective crime prevention • better knowledge of community • improve community relations

32. POLICING IN TAIWAN STRATEGIES OF POD OFFICER • household visit • patrol (foot & bike) • on-station duty • back-up duty • community service

33. COMMUNITY POLICING IN TAIPEI

34. COMMUNITY POLICING IN TAIPEI TAIPEI • capital of Taiwan • culture, political & economy center • population: 2.63 million • population density: 28,000 per km2 • police personnel: 7900 • 14 precincts & 92 substations

35. COMMUNITY POLICING IN TAIPEI DR. MA YIN-JEOU • was elected the mayor of Taipei in 1998 • clearly identified “community policing” the model of Taipei policing • emphasizes on partnership building & restore POD system

36. COMMUNITY POLICING IN TAIPEI MAYOR MA’S PROMISE • decentralize police operation--back to grassroots: neighborhoods • establish & empower the community’s self-defense system • re-emphasize crime prevention • redesign police performance evaluation • simplify police operations and restore the essence of POD

37. COMMUNITY POLICING IN TAIPEI MAYOR MA’S PROMISE • establish a highly efficient 911 service • citizen’s satisfaction guaranteed • improve the benefits of police officers • reprioritize the handling of burglary cases • construct a safety network for women & children

38. COMMUNITY POLICING IN TAIPEI ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGES • The organizational culture of Taipei Municipal Police Headquarters is redefined to emphasize and reward the individual behavior and collective efforts in fighting crime and helping to solve community problems.

39. COMMUNITY POLICING IN TAIPEI ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGES • Crime control and prevention are recognized as dual crucial components of policing. • The organization must reinforce integrity and ethical behavior in policing all the time in order to regain community’s trust.

40. COMMUNITY POLICING IN TAIPEI ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGES • Break down the isolation between the police and the community, and share the responsibility with the rest of the community to pursue effective public safety.

41. COMMUNITY POLICING IN TAIPEI PRECINCT COMMUNITY MEETING • a mechanism to encourage cooperation between the residents and police officers • held periodically and open to public • promote the awareness of crime prevention and police efforts. • 1,049 Precinct Community Meetings were held, with attendance of 41,144 community members

42. COMMUNITY POLICING IN TAIPEI VOLUNTEER SQUAD The volunteer Neighborhood Watch/Patrol Squads patrol and watch their neighborhoods reporting criminal activity and hazardous situations. The squads work as the ears and eyes for the police. So far, there have been 1,799 squads established and work as the auxiliary police force to safeguard their communities.

43. COMMUNITY POLICING IN TAIPEI CRIME PREVENTION PROGRAMS • versatile programs were created to reduce the fear of crime among citizen and to prevent the likelihood of victimization. • In the headquarters and 14 precincts, advisory committees for crime prevention was set up to supervise and inform crime prevention campaigns. • a radio show to promote the information of public safety is on air every weekday afternoon.

44. COMMUNITY POLICING IN TAIPEI SAFETY DEADLOCK HOTLINE Women’s groups or individuals are encouraged to report any area with problematic safety. So far 248 safety deadlocks were reported, and have been alleviated by improving the lighting and remove safety hazards, and increase patrol frequencies in these worrisome areas

45. COMMUNITY POLICING IN TAIPEI COMMUNITY PROTECTION NETWORK Encourage and reimburse partly schools, banks, shops, stores, and residence to install surveillance video camera, alarm, and other protection facilities. By far, 8698 household security systems, 3464 alarm systems, and 7303 CCTV surveillance systems were installed.

46. COMMUNITY POLICING IN TAIPEI SECURITY CHECK & INSPECTION To strengthen the self-protection capacity of banks and jewelry shops, a check-list of security facilities with 36 items were distributed to each store/bank owner. The Police department also inspect periodically to help the store owners reduce the likelihood of victimization.

47. COMMUNITY POLICING IN TAIPEI CRIME STRATEGY MEETINGS Taipei Police holds Crime Strategy Meetings every other week. It is designed to help police precincts target hot areas and hot criminals by means of analyzing the patterns of crime with computers, statistics, and mapping software.

48. LESSONS LEARNED

49. LESSONS LEARNED • The greatest benefit of adopting community policing is the regaining of people’s trust. In Taipei, due to the economic recession and political uncertainty, crime rates are actually on the rise. However, when the community sense the police’s efforts and sincere engagement in the community policing, the public bestow the police with full support.

50. LESSONS LEARNED • To avoid unnecessary resistance inside the organization, the police department has to incorporate the community policing philosophy in all phases of training within the police department on a regular basis. This should include retraining of field skills/tactics and community policing strategies.