Policing in Taiwan : contemporary observations and comparative implications

This project is a participant observation study conducted in Taipei County Police Bureau, Taiwan, R.O.C. from February 12 to March 14, 1990. The objectives of the research are to describe the formal organization of the police in Taiwan and the day to day practice of policing on the street. Attention is focused on how the police deal with the public and respond to certain standard types of events. In addition, their responses are compared to those found among the police of other nations. In general, police in Taiwan act in a civil manner toward citizens. This is similar to the manner of the police in Japan and America. Police in Taiwan and Japan have more of a service orientation than their American counterparts. Police in Taiwan provide broader and more in depth services for citizens which is similar to the Japanese style of policing. The formal organization of the police in Taiwan is more highly structured and centralized than it is in the United States and Japan. Police officers in Taiwan have to serve many masters and experience more interference from other governmental institutions than police in Japan or America. The police in Taiwan, therefore, are overloaded and often blamed by other institutions for social problems beyond their control. Because of the many demands from other institutions and the centralized form of organization in Taiwan, front line officers are overloaded with work and have difficulty providing quality services for citizens. The researcher suggests that superior organizations should allow officers greater room to take initiative in serving the public. Another suggestion is to simplify police work. A more specialized and focused style of policing work may produce a more professionalized police service, more capable of coping with on-going social change in Taiwan, Republic of China.