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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 Cabinet pledges to ease police gun use
Police in Hsinchu City yesterday morning detain Lin Hsin-wu, center, on suspicion of killing two police officers in Tainan the day before. Photo copied by Tsai Chang-sheng, Taipei Times
By Lee Hsin-fang and Liu Tzu-hsuan / Staff reporter, with staff writer
The Executive Yuan yesterday promised to purchase bulletproof equipment and ease rules governing firearm use for police after two officers were killed in Tainan while pursuing a suspect on Monday.
The suspect, identified as Lin Hsin-wu （林信吾）, was arrested at a bus station in Hsinchu City at 4:36am following a nationwide search.
Lin, in his 40s, is a fugitive who escaped from Mingde Minimum Security Prison in Tainan, police said.
After allegedly killing the two police officers, he fled to Kaohsiung before taking a vehicle to northern Taiwan, police said, adding that he was found with a gun and 18 bullets belonging to one of the killed policemen.
Executive Yuan spokesman Lo Ping-cheng （羅秉成） at a news conference in the afternoon said that government agencies have been instructed to provide care and indemnity to the families of the officers.
The Cabinet also hopes that the legislature can prioritize reviewing an amendment to the Act Governing the Use of Police Weapons （警械使用條例） in its next session, Deputy Minister of the Interior Chen Tsung-yen （陳宗彥） said.
The amendment was sent to the legislature in May 2020 and passed a preliminary review in December 2020, he said.
It would relax regulations on the use of firearms by police, Lo said, adding that under the amendment, the State Compensation Act （國家賠償法） can be adopted if the use of firearms while carrying out police duties results in casualties.
The Ministry of the Interior is to convene a panel of experts to advise on firearm use and training, as well as draw up complementary measures, he added.
Regarding police equipment, the government has been procuring more vehicles for highway police, improving communication equipment and subsidizing local governments to replace old vehicles, Chen said.
It also plans to purchase 10,654 bulletproof vests and 54,386 bulletproof helmets for police use, he added.
As for training, 13 interactive shooting ranges have been set up in the past two years and 12 more are to be built to help officers familiarize themselves with various situations, he said.
Separately yesterday, Agency of Corrections Director Huang Chun-tang （黃俊棠） said that Lin had failed to return to the Mingde prison from a home visit.
Inmates in the prison can return home once every three months, he said, adding that Lin’s first home visit was normal, but he failed to return after his second visit.
Lin went home at 2pm on Aug. 13 and was supposed to return at 2pm on Monday last week, he said.
The prison contacted Lin’s family at 2:15pm and at 2:50pm asked the Kaohsiung City Police Department’s Fongshan Precinct and the Tainan City Police Department’s Jiali Precinct to look for him, he said.
The case was handed to the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office for investigation at 4:20pm, he added.
Although the risk of recidivism is high, setting up minimum security prisons is a good corrective measure and can help prisoners reintegrate into society, he said.
According to a report published by the Control Yuan in December 2020, 39 inmates escaped from minimum security prisons from 2011 to 2020, compared with eight people who escaped from normal prisons during the period.
The report had instructed the Ministry of Justice to reassess penalties imposed on fugitive inmates.
Additional reporting by Chen En-huei and Aaron Tu, with CNA
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
From left, Minister of Justice Tsai Ching-hsiang, Deputy Minister of the Interior Chen Tsung-yen and Executive Yuan spokesman Lo Ping-cheng hold a news conference at the Executive Yuan in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
