Police gives higher scores to political intelligence than criminal arrests

The Japan Lawyers Association for Freedom says it has discovered that Kanagawa Police puts more emphasis on intelligence activity concerning political bodies than crime investigation.

Based on the Administrative Information Disclosure Act, the lawyers association had requested Kanagawa Prefectural Police to disclose its standards for commendation of policemen's activities.

An arrest on suspicion of crime punishable by the death sentence or life imprisonment gets a 10-point evaluation. Specifying, issuing a warrant, or the arrest of a heinous crime suspect, scores 18-20 points.

On the contrary, 61-70 points are scored for a report on political or economic information which, the police feel, may influence public order.

Police officers receive a commendation and allowance between 1,000-25,000 yen, according to evaluation scores.

Akahata of April 18 said that such a commendation system with its extreme bias on "public order" can be a cause of police hushing up criminal acts committed by police officials and policemen. (end)