New Taipei Police Indicted for Illegal Personal Data Use in Fraud

New Taipei City Jinshan Police Substation officer Li Yutang is alleged to have used his position to illegally query personal data via police computers and provide it to a fraud group member surnamed Song. After thorough investigation and evidence collection, the Taipei District Prosecutors Office formally concluded the case today, and prosecutors determined that Officer Li and Mr. Song are suspected of serious offenses, charging them respectively with violations of the Personal Data Protection Act and aggravated fraud. The prosecution seeks a prison term of four years and six months for Officer Li and a ten‑year sentence for Mr. Song as a deterrent.

The case drew public attention because a frontline police officer, who should be combating crime and maintaining public safety, instead broke the law and became an accomplice to a fraud network. According to the investigation and indictment, Li Yutang, as a law‑enforcement officer, should have been fully aware of and strictly complied with the Personal Data Protection Act, the Police Powers Act and related regulations. Police resources such as the vehicle license‑plate recognition system and the National Population Information Management System are critical tools granted by the state for criminal investigations. However, Li allegedly failed to uphold professional ethics and legal boundaries, accepting requests or colluding for benefit with Mr. Song and others, repeatedly logging into the systems without authorization to retrieve private data on specific citizens and leaking the information to the fraud group, directly facilitating fraudulent activity.

In recent years Taiwan has been heavily affected by various fraud schemes, prompting the government and law‑enforcement agencies to devote extensive resources to anti‑fraud efforts, from source prevention and financial‑flow interception to apprehending both operatives and masterminds, and implementing a series of strong measures. Yet when breaches occur within the enforcement apparatus itself—especially when police officers with access to public authority and sensitive data become involved—the overall security framework can suffer immeasurable damage. One of the most challenging aspects for fraud rings is obtaining precise information about victims’ whereabouts and backgrounds to tailor their scripts; with insider access to police databases, the success rate of fraud crimes rises dramatically. This not only infringes on innocent citizens’ property and privacy rights but also severely undermines the professional image and public trust that rank‑and‑file officers have painstakingly built.

After completing digital forensics on the relevant financial flows and communication records, the prosecutor handling the case at the Taipei District Prosecutors Office concluded that the criminal facts were clear and that the two defendants caused substantial harm to public order and victims. Consequently, the indictment adopts a harsh stance. The prosecutor specifically requests a prison term of four years and six months for Officer Li, demonstrating the judiciary’s zero‑tolerance for law‑enforcement personnel who violate the law and betray the trust of the state and the people; for Mr. Song, who led or participated in the core fraud, the prosecution urges the court to impose a ten‑year imprisonment, underscoring the state’s determination to punish fraud and uphold the rule of law. The case will proceed to trial, where the court will further clarify details and assign responsibility.

The indictment has refocused public debate on internal police discipline and information‑security management. To prevent recurrence, the National Police Agency and local police departments have in recent years been promoting audit mechanisms for police‑information‑system query trails, employing big‑data analytics and anomalous‑query alert systems to proactively identify unreasonable data‑access behavior. While technological safeguards are in place, strengthening officers’ internal awareness, legal consciousness and performance evaluation remains a critical issue that law‑enforcement agencies must address seriously. Only by thoroughly cleansing the ranks, rigorously enforcing review and supervision of data‑access requests, can the police regain public confidence and ensure that state authority is truly used to uphold justice.

(Source: Central News Agency)