During his childhood, Liang Chiao-wei (梁喬惟) whiled away much of his free time watching crime dramas on television and daydreaming of one day following in the footsteps of his police officer father. Now 27, Liang has enjoyed an impressive start to his law enforcement career. Last year, he was one of 28 officers singled out for their exceptional performance by the National Police Agency (NPA) under the Ministry of the Interior. He was granted this honor for helping bust a major car theft ring. While he feels immensely proud to have received the accolade, the modest young officer is quick to highlight the role that law enforcement technologies played in cracking the case. “Surveillance cameras proved crucial,” notes Liang, who now serves in the northern city of Hsinchu. “I was able to identify numerous leads by carefully studying footage of the offenses.”
In recent years, the NPA has adopted a variety of modern crime-fighting tools, offering powerful resources to law enforcement officials. Speaking at the opening of a new facility for the Forensic Science Center under the agency’s Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) in December 2010, Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), then premier and currently vice president of the Republic of China (ROC), noted that “advanced equipment and outstanding forensic capabilities can uncover every critical piece of evidence, making investigations more efficient and providing a solid foundation for the protection of human rights.”
“Forensic science used to play a relatively minor role in investigative work in Taiwan,” says Cheng Sheaw-guey (程曉桂), the director of the center. This began to change in 1989 with the establishment of the Department of Forensic Science—the first and to date only one of its kind in the nation—at Central Police University (CPU), the country’s highest level institution for police education. However, Cheng notes that the Taiwanese public remained largely unaware of this aspect of law enforcement work until CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, a popular US television series, started airing in the country in the early 2000s. Public interest in the field also grew around that time as a result of extensive media coverage of the career of Henry Lee (李昌鈺), a CPU graduate and one of the world’s foremost forensic scientists.
One of six polygraph testing rooms at the Forensic Science Center (Photo courtesy of Criminal Investigation Bureau’s Forensic Science Center)
Lee served as a police officer in Taiwan before immigrating to the United States in 1965. After earning a doctorate in biochemistry at New York University in 1975, he developed a reputation as an outstanding criminalist and consulted on numerous famous cases, including the O. J. Simpson trial. In Taiwan, he is best known for assisting with the investigation into the shooting of then incumbent ROC President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) on the eve of the 2004 presidential election.
Cheng notes that while Lee rose to prominence in Taiwan 10 years or so ago, he has in fact been promoting the development of forensic science in the country for decades. Since the late 1980s, Taiwanese forensic experts have regularly traveled to Connecticut, where Lee founded the Henry C. Lee Institute of Forensic Science at the University of New Haven and previously served as the US state’s chief criminalist, to study under the specialist. Cheng worked under Lee for four months in 1989, when she took part in a homicide investigation with her mentor. “The trip had a huge impact on me,” she says. “I became aware of just how far behind Taiwan was in the field of forensic science.”
In 1992, the CIB sent a scientist to consult with Lee as it prepared for the launch of its DNA Lab the following year. After the establishment of the facility, which marked a major milestone in the history of criminal investigative work in Taiwan, DNA testing gradually started to replace the previously used identification method of blood typing.
Henry Lee, front left, an internationally renowned forensic scientist, and Cheng Sheaw-guey, right, director of the Forensic Science Center (Photo courtesy of Criminal Investigation Bureau’s Forensic Science Center)
By the turn of the century, forensic science was taking on an increasingly prominent role in investigations, and police departments around the nation were beginning to set up local-level forensic centers, the first of which was launched in the southern city of Kaohsiung in 2000. The CIB established the national-level Forensic Science Center in November 2002 on the third floor of its headquarters in Taipei City.
The opening of the purpose-built facility for the center in December 2010 significantly enhanced its capabilities. The new center is 50 percent larger than the old premises, and houses advanced technologies to assist with a variety of investigative work, including modern devices for DNA testing and the chemical analysis of substances such as drugs and paint. “I can now add new equipment and facilities, which was previously impossible because of the limited space,” Cheng notes.
The new center also contains six rooms for polygraph testing, compared to just one at the old site. “The new rooms have better acoustic wall panels, which provide excellent soundproofing and enhance the accuracy of the tests,” she explains. The more spacious facility has also improved safety. In the past, offices had to double as laboratories, which meant confiscated guns and bullets were often examined in cramped and unsafe environments.
Huang Lan-ying (黃蘭媖), an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Criminology at National Taipei University, notes that “of all types of police work in Taiwan from criminal investigations to traffic control, the forensic science sector has the most specialized manpower.” For this reason, Cheng places a strong emphasis on human resource development. And having experienced the benefits of international collaboration, she regularly invites scientists from abroad to visit the center, including Lee, who came just last month with two other experts specializing in bloodstain-pattern analysis and fingerprinting. “Human resources are our most important asset, so I take on-the-job training very seriously,” she says.
An expert from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Explosives Unit, left, offers guidance during a training session in Taiwan on post-blast forensics organized by the Forensic Science Center last year. (Photo courtesy of Criminal Investigation Bureau’s Forensic Science Center)
“The improvement in our forensic science capabilities has helped officers solve several major crimes in recent years in addition to a significant number of cold cases,” notes Tsai Chun-chang (蔡俊章), deputy director-general of the NPA. The official cites two previously unsolved incidents of rape from the 1990s that were cracked after the culprits separately reoffended in 2011. Forensic investigators were able to match DNA taken from the rapists after their recent crimes to samples obtained from evidence stored in the Forensic Science Center’s archives from their prior offenses.
Cheng, meanwhile, notes the role that forensic science played in uncovering the truth regarding the Guang Da Xing No. 28 incident, which involved the fatal shooting of a Taiwanese fisherman by the Philippine Coast Guard in May 2013. In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, the Philippine government claimed that the Guang Da Xing No. 28 fishing boat had provoked the incident by ramming the Philippine vessel. However, Taiwanese forensic experts later proved that the two ships had not collided. “Let the evidence speak and you’ll uncover the truth,” Cheng says.
The nation has also made significant investments in other crime-fighting technologies in recent years, most notably surveillance cameras. According to the NPA, more than 142,000 police surveillance cameras have been set up in public spaces across Taiwan over the past decade. These cameras have increased the clearance rate of crimes in addition to preventing countless offenses from being committed. “The police used to rely heavily on witness statements, but surveillance footage is obviously much more reliable than human memory,” Liang notes.
In 2004, surveillance cameras were the primary means through which the police cracked 944 criminal cases, or just 0.3 percent of the total number of cases solved that year. By 2013, this proportion had risen to around 15 percent. Additionally, over this period the number of crimes reported annually decreased from around 523,000 to approximately 300,000.
More than 142,000 police surveillance cameras have been set up around the country over the past decade. (Photo by Huang Chung-hsin)
The NPA is also utilizing information technology solutions to improve the efficiency of police work. For instance, in 2007 the agency began developing its M-Police Operation System, which enables officers to quickly verify the identities of individuals. The system’s newest function, launched in 2012, allows police to match pictures taken using mobile devices with photo IDs stored in the nation’s household registration system database.
Needless to say, criminals have adjusted their behavior as a result of the improvements in the investigative capabilities of the police force. “People are more cautious today when committing offenses,” Liang says. For example, he notes that many criminals cover their license plates when they suspect an area may contain surveillance cameras. “In cases such as that, I have to check through a great deal of footage from a number of cameras in the hope that they have slipped up and left me some clues that might reveal their identities,” he says. “It’s time-consuming and tiring work, but it’s also very rewarding.” Indeed, while forensic science and modern technologies are providing investigators with powerful new tools, the dedication of law enforcement officials remains the foundation of the nation’s crime-fighting efforts.
Write to Oscar Chung at mhchung@mofa.gov.tw