[Legal Life] Ch2: Summoned by the Police, What Should You Do?

"Beep... beep... beep..." The elderly woman lying on the hospital bed remained unconscious. Having no family, she had only the kind-hearted Chieh-yün holding her hand by her side, waiting for her to wake up. On the other hand, although the elderly woman had no family, she had performed many good deeds and was friendly in daily life, so everyone in the community knew her. Upon hearing that she was injured in a traffic accident, the local police immediately began investigating the case. Based on Chieh-yün's statement, the police reviewed nearby surveillance cameras and, following the clues, located Chün-ming, who was suspected of driving that day, and summoned him to the police station for questioning.

On a dark and stormy night, Chün-ming arrived at the police station in response to a notice, and the officers led him into a small room. Without saying a word, an officer shone a desk lamp directly into Chün-ming's face. Terrified and at a loss, Chün-ming did not dare to utter a single word...

Criminal Investigation Must Also Respect Citizens' Rights

Whether police investigate crimes or prosecutors prosecute crimes, both constitute criminal procedure. In criminal proceedings, however, these two forms of public authority hold a relatively dominant position over ordinary citizens. Therefore, it is necessary to place limits on the enforcement actions of public authorities to ensure that citizens' rights are not sacrificed or improperly infringed upon by law enforcement.

One common method used by police or prosecutors to investigate crimes is "interrogation." However, whether someone is a defendant or a criminal suspect, being interrogated can be very frightening—they may feel that the police are aggressive or worry that adverse consequences might occur if they do not obey. Furthermore, because ordinary citizens lack professional legal knowledge, they may not be able to adequately protect their own rights.

Consequently, Chapter 9 of the Code of Criminal Procedure sets forth the rules that must be observed when interrogating defendants and criminal suspects in order to safeguard citizens' rights.

Police interrogation is naturally part of the criminal process. Article 100-2 of the Code of Criminal Procedure stipulates: "The provisions of this Chapter shall apply mutatis mutandis to judicial police officers or judicial police questioning criminal suspects." This means the police must also comply with the regulations governing interrogation.

Must You Go If Summoned by the Police?

Paragraph 1, Article 71-1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure: "Judicial police officers or judicial police, when necessary for investigating the criminal conduct of a criminal suspect and collecting evidence, may use a notification document to summon the criminal suspect to appear for questioning. Anyone who has been lawfully summoned and fails to appear without justified reason may be reported to a prosecutor for the issuance of a warrant of arrest."

Under this provision, the police may "notify" a criminal suspect to come to the police station for "questioning" in order to investigate a crime or gather evidence. However, this notice is generally considered non-mandatory, meaning you can ask to reschedule if you are busy, or make a preliminary phone call to communicate with the handling officer if the matter clearly has nothing to do with you. Nevertheless, under the latter part of this paragraph, if the police have notified you and you fail to appear without a justified reason, but the police still deem it necessary to question you, they may request the prosecutor to issue an arrest warrant to compel the suspect to appear at the police station for questioning.

Upon Arriving at the Police Station for Questioning, What Should You Do Immediately?

1. Verify Identity
   First, pursuant to Article 94 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the police must first verify your name and confirm whether you are indeed the person the police are looking for. If they have the wrong person, the police must release you immediately.
   
2. Prohibition of Nighttime Interrogation
   Paragraph 1, Article 100-3 of the Code of Criminal Procedure: "Judicial police officers or judicial police questioning criminal suspects shall not conduct such questioning at night." Paragraph 2 of the same Article: "If a criminal suspect requests immediate questioning, it shall be conducted without delay."
   
   Second, in principle, pursuant to Article 100-3 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, you may demand that the police conduct the questioning immediately. However, the police may not conduct interrogations at "night" (with exceptions, such as your explicit consent, or permission from a prosecutor or judge). The rationale is that nighttime is a time of rest for most people, and mental activity and physical condition are inferior to those during the daytime. Interrogating a defendant or criminal suspect at night not only deprives citizens of rest time, but also raises questions as to whether statements made by a defendant or suspect in a poor mental state truly reflect their free will.
   

How to Protect Your Rights During Interrogation

• Duty to Inform Prior to Interrogation
  Article 95 of the Code of Criminal Procedure:
  "(Paragraph 1) A defendant shall be informed of the following matters prior to interrogation:
  1. The suspected crime and all offenses charged. If, after the offenses have been informed, it is deemed necessary to amend them, they shall be informed again.
  2. The right to remain silent, and that one is not required to make statements against one's own will.
  3. The right to retain defense counsel. If the person is from a low-income household, a middle-low-income household, is an indigenous person, or is otherwise entitled by law to request legal aid, they may do so.
  4. The right to request the investigation of favorable evidence.
  (Paragraph 2) If an unrepresented defendant states that they have retained defense counsel, questioning shall cease immediately; provided, however, that this shall not apply if the defendant consents to the continuation of the questioning."
  
  Furthermore, you have the right to demand the following:
  
  1. Ask the police to tell you why you were brought in and what crime you are suspected of committing.
  2. You may remain silent and say nothing at all.
  3. You may choose your own lawyer, or, if you meet the criteria, request a free legal aid lawyer. The Legal Aid Foundation also operates a 24-hour defense-accompanying project specifically for first-time interrogations (Hotline: 02-2559-2119).
  4. Ask the police not only to investigate evidence of your guilt, but also to investigate evidence favorable to you, as you may actually be innocent.
  5. If you have already retained a lawyer, the police must stop questioning you, wait for your lawyer to arrive before continuing, and allow you to consult with your lawyer prior to questioning.
• Methods of Interrogation
  Article 98 of the Code of Criminal Procedure: "The interrogation of a defendant shall be conducted with an earnest and sincere attitude, and shall not resort to violence, threats, inducement, fraud, exhaustive interrogation, or other improper methods."
  
  In principle, when the police interrogate a defendant or criminal suspect, their attitude should be amicable. As mentioned earlier, ordinary citizens summoned by the police for questioning inevitably feel frightened. Under such circumstances, police officers should treat criminal suspects all the more amicably, and must not intimidate, threaten, or use benefits to induce statements from a suspect, let alone resort to torture. Another crucial point is that the interrogation must not be excessively long, nor should other methods be used to exhaust the defendant or criminal suspect physically and mentally, such as intentionally conducting the interrogation in a stuffy summer room without turning on a fan or air conditioner.
  Interrogations conducted by police using the aforementioned methods not only violate the rights of the defendant or criminal suspect, but statements made by the defendant or suspect under such psychological pressure are deemed suspect. Consequently, the "truth" uncovered by the police becomes questionable, and confessions obtained through such means may, in severe cases, be rendered inadmissible as evidence in court.
  
• Right to Exculpation
  Article 96 of the Code of Criminal Procedure: "A defendant shall be given the opportunity to exculpate themselves from criminal suspicion during interrogation; if they offer an exculpation, they shall be ordered to give a continuous narrative from beginning to end; if they state facts favorable to themselves, they shall be ordered to indicate the methods of proof."
  
  Once questioning begins, the police should not merely conduct a one-sided interrogation; they must provide the defendant or criminal suspect an opportunity to defend themselves. During this exculpatory process, the defendant or suspect should narrate the ins and outs of the matter as they know it, and if they state facts favorable to themselves, they should inform the police how those facts can be proven.
  Interrogations conducted by police using the aforementioned methods not only violate the rights of the defendant or criminal suspect, but statements made by the defendant or suspect under such psychological pressure are deemed suspect. Consequently, the "truth" uncovered by the police becomes questionable, and confessions obtained through such means may, in severe cases, be rendered inadmissible as evidence in court.
  
• Right to Inspect the Record
  Paragraph 1, Article 41 of the Code of Criminal Procedure:
  (Paragraph 1) Minutes shall be made on the spot during the interrogation of a defendant, private prosecutor, witness, expert witness, or interpreter...
  (Paragraph 2) The minutes mentioned in the preceding paragraph shall be read aloud to the person interrogated or submitted to them for review, and they shall be asked whether there are any errors in the recording.
  (Paragraph 3) If the person interrogated requests the addition, deletion, or alteration of entries, their statements shall be appended to the minutes.
  (Paragraph 4) The person interrogated shall be required to sign, seal, or press their fingerprint immediately following the last line of the entries.
  
  Finally, the police must prepare minutes of the interrogation. Therefore, upon conclusion of the questioning, the defendant or criminal suspect may request to review the minutes to check whether the police misconstrued their meaning or recorded anything incorrectly. The person interrogated may also demand that the police add, alter, or delete text within the minutes. Once the minutes are confirmed to be error-free, the defendant or criminal suspect should sign and seal them.
  
• Continuous Audio and Video Recording Throughout
  Article 100-1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure: "The interrogation of a defendant shall be continuously audio-recorded from beginning to end; where necessary, it shall also be continuously video-recorded from beginning to end. However, this shall not apply in urgent circumstances where the reasons are noted in the minutes."
  
  Furthermore, pursuant to this Article, when the police interrogate you, they must continuously record audio or video throughout the entire process.
  The purpose of requiring continuous audio and video recording is that police minutes are sometimes inaccurate, altered, or even produced under coercion and threats. Requiring continuous audiovisual recording provides evidence in court later to verify whether the minutes are truthful.
  Therefore, to safeguard your rights, remember to verify whether the police are continuously audio- and video-recording the interrogation. Moreover, in future legal proceedings, if you have doubts about the minutes, you may also apply to the court for the release of the disc containing the audiovisual recording of the interrogation.
  

Relevant Legal Provisions

• Article 41 of the Code of Criminal Procedure: "(Paragraph 1) Minutes shall be made on the spot during the interrogation of a defendant, private prosecutor, witness, expert witness, or interpreter, recording the following matters:
  1. Questions put to the person interrogated and their statements.
  2. The reasons, if any, why a witness, expert witness, or interpreter was not sworn.
  3. The year, month, day, and place of the interrogation.
  (Paragraph 2) The minutes mentioned in the preceding paragraph shall be read aloud to the person interrogated or submitted to them for review, and they shall be asked whether there are any errors in the recording.
  (Paragraph 3) If the person interrogated requests the addition, deletion, or alteration of entries, their statements shall be appended to the minutes.
  (Paragraph 4) The person interrogated shall be required to sign, seal, or press their fingerprint immediately following the last line of the entries."
• Article 43-1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure: "(Paragraph 1) The provisions of Articles 41 and 42 shall apply mutatis mutandis when prosecutor-investigators, judicial police officers, or judicial police conduct questioning, searches, or seizures.
  (Paragraph 2) The preparation of the interrogation minutes for the criminal suspect in the preceding paragraph shall be conducted by a person other than the one conducting the questioning; provided, however, that this shall not apply in urgent circumstances or due to factual impossibilities where continuous audio or video recording is implemented."
• Paragraph 1, Article 71-1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure: "Judicial police officers or judicial police, when necessary for investigating the criminal conduct of a criminal suspect and collecting evidence, may use a notification document to summon the criminal suspect to appear for questioning. Anyone who has been lawfully summoned and fails to appear without justified reason may be reported to a prosecutor for the issuance of a warrant of arrest."
• Article 94 of the Code of Criminal Procedure: "The interrogation of a defendant shall begin by inquiring about their name, age, place of origin, occupation, and domicile or residence, in order to verify whether there is any error regarding their identity. If there is an error, they shall be released immediately."
• Article 95 of the Code of Criminal Procedure:
  "(Paragraph 1) A defendant shall be informed of the following matters prior to interrogation:
  1. The suspected crime and all offenses charged. If, after the offenses have been informed, it is deemed necessary to amend them, they shall be informed again.
  2. The right to remain silent, and that one is not required to make statements against one's own will.
  3. The right to retain defense counsel. If the person is from a low-income household, a middle-low-income household, is an indigenous person, or is otherwise entitled by law to request legal aid, they may do so.
  4. The right to request the investigation of favorable evidence.
  (Paragraph 2) If an unrepresented defendant states that they have retained defense counsel, questioning shall cease immediately; provided, however, that this shall not apply if the defendant consents to the continuation of the questioning."
• Article 96 of the Code of Criminal Procedure: "A defendant shall be given the opportunity to exculpate themselves from criminal suspicion during interrogation; if they offer an exculpation, they shall be ordered to give a continuous narrative from beginning to end; if they state facts favorable to themselves, they shall be ordered to indicate the methods of proof."
• Article 98 of the Code of Criminal Procedure: "The interrogation of a defendant shall be conducted with an earnest and sincere attitude, and shall not resort to violence, threats, inducement, fraud, exhaustive interrogation, or other improper methods."
• Article 100-2 of the Code of Criminal Procedure: "The provisions of this Chapter shall apply mutatis mutandis to judicial police officers or judicial police questioning criminal suspects."
• Article 100-1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure: "The interrogation of a defendant shall be continuously audio-recorded from beginning to end; where necessary, it shall also be continuously video-recorded from beginning to end. However, this shall not apply in urgent circumstances where the reasons are noted in the minutes."
• Article 100-3 of the Code of Criminal Procedure: "(Paragraph 1) Judicial police officers or judicial police questioning criminal suspects shall not conduct such questioning at night; provided, however, that this shall not apply under any of the following circumstances:
  1. Where expressly consented to by the person interrogated.
  2. Where the person is brought in pursuant to an arrest warrant or warrantless arrest at night, and their identity is being verified.
  3. Where permitted by a prosecutor or judge.
  4. Where urgent circumstances exist.
  (Paragraph 2) If a criminal suspect requests immediate questioning, it shall be conducted without delay.
  (Paragraph 3) Nighttime is defined as the period after sunset and before sunrise."
• Article 156 of the Code of Criminal Procedure: "(Paragraph 1) A confession by a defendant, if not obtained through violence, threats, inducement, fraud, exhaustive interrogation, unlawful detention, or other improper methods, and which is consistent with the facts, may serve as evidence."