The Study of Legal Restrictions on Police Personnel''s Private Domain Behaviors

According to the statistics of the National Police Administration of Ministry of the Interior in recent 5 years (from 2004 to 2008), among the cases of major disciplinary violation (i.e., behaviors with more than two recorded demerits) by the police personnel, the categories of going into improper venues and involving abnormal relationship with opposite gender personnel have occupied half of the aforementioned cases, indicating a high occurrence frequency of these cases. Also, another obvious phenomenon has been that the category of behavior involving more than two recorded demerits caused by involvement of abnormal relationship with opposite gender personnel has evidenced an annual sharp increase both in case and personnel counts. With so many relevant norms and regulations in the National Police Administration which are all constraints and restrictions in nature on police personnel behavior, whether these norms and regulations have gone too far as to interfere with or become in violation of personal privacy has fallen under core concerns of this research thesis. In the case study, the research thesis has particularly sampled two case categories of major disciplinary violation, including the cases of going into improper venues and the cases of involving abnormal relationship with opposite gender personnel. These two categories have amounted half of the cases of major disciplinary violation by the police personnel. After studying related documents and writings, and relevant cases in the Disciplinary Committee of Civil Servants and the Protection of Civil Servants and Training Committee, and interviewing various sampling persons, the research thesis has summarized some relevant findings, including: 1. Has violates the constitution the anxiety; 2. Disciplinary punishments always overwrite others; 3. The disciplinary norms and regulations have been duplicate; 4. No due procedure has ever been facilitated to ensure the rights and interests of the police personnel; 5. The official business ethics should have a distinction with personal morals; 6. The special right relations encounter the question; 7. Police the private domain behavior still with difficulty escaped the high standard inspection; 8. Maintain or make up for the police to the reputation of the most important; 9. The concerns on possible joint and liable responsibility; 10. Social perception and public trust on the police deserve more attention by the police agency. In regard to protection of the fundamental rights of police personnel, after analyzing and summarizing relevant documents and writings, empirical cases, interviewees’ comments, the research thesis has concluded that a police personnel “going into improper venues” or “involving abnormal relationship with opposite gender personnel” if his or her behavior has nothing to do with police affairs or is solely a private behavior ought not to fall under the reservation limit scope stipulated by the law based on the Article 23 of the Constitution. Accordingly, the related punishment regulations require discriminative judgment. Otherwise, a constitutional doubt can be raised on it. Furthermore, the rules and regulations stipulated by the police agency towards these disciplinary violation behaviors merely are administrative rules in nature with no legal basis and authorization. Worst as well, the regulations concerning civil servant performance evaluation and administrative punishments have been integrated together and become a set of unique dedicated rules. As a result, a police personnel whose behavior involves the said violation receives more than required punishments. It is absolutely an injustice act. Then for the police authorities of the concept in principle and some specific measures for the reference to such acts as a reference, a view to policy makers in terms of the overall nature of careful consideration and review in order to enable the police personnel fundamental rights can be appropriate and reasonable security.