A Taiwanese police officer who drew repeated media attention for her striking appearance and unconventional career path now faces a prosecutors' investigation after allegedly falsifying her case performance records. More than 500 commendations and awards she received over a single year have been revoked in full.
According to Taiwan's Mirror Media on Tuesday, the officer — identified only as A — is assigned to the Xinyi District Police Precinct of the Taipei City Police Department. She graduated from the French literature department of a well-known private university, worked as a secretary at a large corporation, and then joined the police force after passing a special recruitment exam. Initially posted to the Baifu Police Station in Keelung, she was later transferred to the Xinyi precinct, where she has worked as an investigative support officer for roughly a decade.
Primarily an office-based officer, she became widely known inside and outside the force for her looks and outgoing personality, earning the nickname "the Fan Bingbing of the police world" — a reference to the famous Chinese actor.
The allegations surfaced as she was preparing for a promotion after passing the entrance exam for the Central Police University. Investigators found that she had exploited personal ties with male colleagues to claim credit for their investigative work or to have her contributions artificially inflated.
She had her name added as a co-contributor on criminal case merit lists for investigations she did not actually take part in, allowing her to collect the associated commendations.
In Taiwan's police system, case commendations are generally awarded to field detectives who directly participate in arrests, searches and seizures, and other on-site investigative activities. In her case, however, some detectives shared their own case credits with her, and as a result she accumulated more than 500 commendations in a single year.
Her performance evaluations consequently ranked higher than those of detectives who worked in the field, fueling internal resentment. An anonymous tip was eventually filed, prompting the internal affairs division to open an investigation.
The probe found documentation deficiencies and procedural irregularities in the commendation award reports. Some of the detectives who had shared their credits reportedly came forward voluntarily during the investigation to disclose the matter to their superiors. Local media said those involved could face criminal liability on charges including forgery of official documents.
A Xinyi precinct official said the relevant paperwork for the criminal case commendation applications had not been properly prepared and that procedural shortcomings had been confirmed. "Once the investigation concludes, all relevant commendations will be revoked to uphold the fairness of the awards system and restore police discipline," the official said.
The precinct added that it had already reported the suspected document forgery to prosecutors and would cooperate fully with their investigation.
betterj@heraldcorp.com