National Police Agency (Taiwan)


The National Police Agency, Ministry of the Interior is an agency under the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of China, or Taiwan. Headquartered in Taipei, the agency oversees all police forces on a national level.

Police organization and structure

Hierarchy

Most actual law enforcement and day-to-day policing duties on a city and county level are delegated to local police departments, which answer to the NPA but are considered agencies of their local government. However, the NPA has direct control over several specialized units which may be deployed to assist local forces, as well as the national highway patrol.
Unlike the law enforcement in the United States, the central government appoints the head positions of city and county police departments in the ROC and forms a solid chain of command for all police personnel. The Director-General of NPA has the full control of personnel rotation and transfer, as well as administrative commendations and reprimands over all high ranking police officers, including local police department chiefs.
One exception is the President of the Central Police University, who is directly subordinate to the Minister of the Interior and is not subject to the NPA personnel review board.

NPA Units

In addition to its own internal administrative offices, the NPA has direct control over the following units and agencies:

Criminal Investigation Bureau

The Criminal Investigation Bureau is responsible for the investigation of high-profile crimes, forensics, and computer-related crimes. Its staff is split into the following groups:
  • Crime Prevention and Detection Command Center: Code-named Telephone Extension Number 8.
  • Crime Prevention Section
  • Crime Investigation Section
  • Anti-Hoodlum Section
  • Laws & Regulations Research Section
  • Criminal Records Section
  • International Criminal Affairs Section
  • INTERPOL Radio Center
  • Research & Development Office
  • Public Relations Office
  • Logistics Section
  • Secretariat
  • Internal Affairs Office
  • Public Security Office
  • Personnel Office
  • Accounting Office
  • Special Tactical Unit
There are also nine active field police squads
  • 1st brigade: Homicide and unregistered weapons.
  • 2nd brigade: Robbery and sex-related crimes.
  • 3rd brigade: Controlled substances and organized crime.
  • 4th brigade: Burglary, kidnapping and blackmail.
  • 5th brigade: Bombs Disposal and Investigation.
  • 6th and 8th brigades: Rapid reaction units in central and southern Taiwan.
  • 7th brigade: Financial crimes.
  • 9th brigade: Cybercrimes.
Two task-force-grouped centers include:

Special Operations Group (SOG)

There are seven individual Special Operations Groups, named the "Special Police Corps". They are mobile, rapid deployment police forces. They also execute various sentry duties and serve as a pool of reserve formations for police manpower.
Three task-force-grouped SWAT units referred to as Peace Enforcing Special Service Forces or "Wei-An" Forces; literally “Safety Maintenance Special Mission Group” officially translated to english as the Special Operations Group which is the official Counterterrorism unit which consists of the 1st, 4th and 5th Special Operations Groups. The uniforms and equipment of the SOG units are similar to local Police tactical unit, which are referred to in english as Thunder Squads. The Thunder Squads are subordinate to local police departments. However, the SOG Forces are the only police units equipped with V-150S armor vehicles and M998 Humvee, which were transferred from ROC Army after the 2004 shoot out with.

The First Corps

A training base for courses of on-the-job training and mobile task force. Riot control, Special Weapons and Tactics, counterterrorism in northern Taiwan. It commands six special police brigades and one S.O.G "Wei-an" Forces. Three brigades of conscripts, 2nd, 5th and 6th, served like combat police in Korea, are usually deployed for Riot control.
  • Corps Headquarters, 2nd, 3rd, 4th brigades, and one "Wei-An" Forces, are stationed in Si-pai, Taipei City.
  • *"Wei-an" Forces: Formed in June 1992. Its mission specialties are counter-terrorism, high-profile hostage rescues, and presidential protection. These forces are composed of SWAT units divided into two companies, which are supported by the 3rd brigade.
  • 1st and 5th brigades are stationed in Sanxia District, New Taipei City.
  • The 6th brigade is stationed in Bade District, Taoyuan City.

    The Second Corps

There are 4 brigades commended by the Ministry of Economic Affairs. It is for security duty of all governmental business units and Taiwan Power Company under the Ministry of Economic Affairs and all Science Parks of National Science Council.
  • The first brigade is especially tasked for the copyright protection and the enforcement of counterfeit and infringement in related to intellectual property. It is usually code-named Intellectual Property Protection Brigade.
  • The 2nd is to guard three nuclear power plants of Taiwan Power Company in New Taipei City.
  • The 3rd is in northern Taiwan for the security duty of two Science Parks in Hsinchu and Taichung under National Science Council, and the other industrial parks, import-export districts, and certain government installations of the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
  • The 4th is in southern Taiwan for the security duty of all governmental business installations under the National Science Council and the Ministry of Economic Affairs, which includes one nuclear power plant: "Nuclear No.3."

    The Third Corps

It is a part of border police and provides supportive and supplemental duty of Customs Services of Ministry of Finance.

The Fourth Corps

, Special Weapons and Tactics, counter-terrorism in central Taiwan.
  • "Wei-an" Forces: In March 2003, two more task force-sized SWAT groups of "Wei-an" Forces were formed. One of them is attached to the 4th Special Police Corps in Taichung, which is located in central Taiwan.

    The Fifth Corps

, Special Weapons and Tactics, counter-terrorism in southern Taiwan.
  • "Wei-an" Forces: In March 2003, two task-force SWAT groups were formed. One is attached to the 5th Special Police Corps in southern Taiwan.

    The Sixth Corps

Responsible for the physical security of central government buildings, high-ranking civilian officials, foreign embassies, and liaison institutes.

The Seventh Corps

The Seventh Special Police Corps, 7SPC, was established on January 1, 2014, aiming to solve the growing problems of nature reservation, environment protection and forest and National Parks guarding.
The design of 7SPC is close to National Parks rangers in USA, who are officials employed by government to provide law and order. Their duties are originally confined to seeing that the Forest Law, National Parks Law and Environment Protection Law and so on.

Taiwan Special Police Corps

There are 6 Special Police Brigades inherited from the late Taiwan Provincial Police Administration.
  • The first 3 brigades are for the security duty of 3 governmental financial banks: Taiwan Land Bank, Taiwan Cooperative Bank, and Bank of Taiwan.
  • The 4th is to guard the government installations related to the late Taiwan Province.
  • The 5th and 6th are attached to Water Resources Agency, Ministry of Economic Affairs to protect the water supply and water-and-land-related environmental cases.

    Civil Defense Force

The Civil Defense Force is administered by the NPA.

Other NPA Units

The Immigration Bureau was removed from NPA and reorganized as the National Immigration Agency on 2 January 2007.
By separate decrees of The Executive Yuan, three task-force formations, each consisted of roughly a couple of hundreds police officers with different specialty, are formed under the National Police Agency but attached to two cabinet-level institutions or other units.
  • Telecommunication Police Corps : In January 1998, a task force called the "Telecommunication Police Corps" was formed and attached to the Ministry of Transportation and Communications. Since 2 February 2006, the Telecommunication Police Corps are re-attached to the National Communication Commission. Its job is to enforce laws concerning the radio spectrum and telecommunications.
  • Environmental Protection Police Corps : It was formed in 1999 and is attached to the Environmental Protection Administration. There are currently 192 policemen serving as Environmental Protection Police and assigned to three brigades at Taipei City, Taichung City and Fongshan City in Northern, Central and Southern Taiwan, respectively.
  • Forest & Nature Conservation Police Unit : This was formed with 178 policemen on 1 July 2004 by the decree of the Executive Yuan on 6 August 2003, after ten forest arson cases in the mountain area of Taichung County within six years. It is attached to the Forest Bureau of the Council of Agriculture. Besides its headquarters in Taipei City, there are eight squadrons in Taiwan mountain area. Its main task is to support the forest patrolmen to preserve and protect the ecology system and all historic monuments in all the forests in Taiwan.