Due to the sexual assault incident that happened to a female Korean tourist in Taipei City a while ago and reports filed that foreign passengers had their taxi fare overcharged, society is paying great attention to the safety of female taxi passengers and the rights and privileges of all taxi passengers. To prevent illegal and irregular taxi driver behavior, the Taichung City Police Department plans to strengthen its taxi inspection duties intermittently at major tourist attractions, the airport, stations, taxi stops, hotels and other places. In addition to this, the police department will also coordinate actively in implementing joint inspections on chartered tours and illegal taxis with highway authorities. If any illegal or regulation violating behaviors are discovered, they will be punished according to the Highway Act and other related regulations. As for the special operation implemented by the police department, its investigation focus will be on fake or fraudulent use of registration for practice, those without registration for practice, those with expired registration for practice, and those conducting illegal taxicab operations.
To put an end to illegal taxi drivers conducting taxicab operations, the Taichung City Police Department asks all precincts under our administration to organize their operations depending on their circumstances to flexibly implement road checks, and patrolling and watching operations to investigate and prohibit taxi violations. Since January 17th, 2017, 58 cases of illegal taxicab operation without a registration for practice, 815 common traffic violations, 1 case of illegal taxicab operation, and 2 cases of registration for practice forging were hunted down. As for the 2 cases of registration for practice forging, the suspects admitted that they forged the registration for practice by replacing the photo of others with theirs and photocopied them in color. After investigation, the police transferred them to the prosecutor according to article 212 of the Criminal Code due to forgery.
As for the 8,301 legal taxi drivers under registration for practice in Taichung City, they have to attend the annual examination conducted by the Traffic Division regularly to ensure that their registration for practice is still valid. If any driver has any situation that is not suitable for conducting taxicab operation, their registration for practice will be suspended or repealed and they will be prohibited from conducting taxicab operations. If other illegal behaviors are discovered, the police will investigate and deal with them according to law.
Taichung City Police Department pays great attention to the safety of all taxi passengers. Therefore, we remind citizens that when taking a taxi, please check the right side of the dashboard and the back of the right front seat to see if the registration for practice with a reflective laser label could be found or not. Also, please check the photo to see if it matches with the taxi driver. We remind citizens that if you discover any illegal behaviors, please dial 110 immediately. Taichung City Police Department stated that to offer a safe and outstanding taxi environment within Taichung City and achieve the operation target of “protect the legal behaviors and prevent illegal behaviors”, it will strengthen investigation by inspecting taxis within each precinct’s administration and hunting down “illegal taxicab operations”, “fake or fraudulent use of registration for practice” and “conducting taxicab operation without registration of practice” through mobile road checks. It seeks to achieve the operation target of “protect the legal behaviors, prevent illegal behaviors, keep the citizens safe, and allow them to take taxis at ease”.