In the midst of an emergency due to the spread of the new coronavirus infection, police in various places, receiving requests for cooperation from prefectures, called out to drunken customers to refrain from going out, mainly in downtown areas.
However, since there is no legal basis for this "talking", some police officers struggled to draw the line between "duty questioning" for the purpose of exposing crimes and the opposition from heartless citizens. rice field.
Job questioning is stipulated in Article XNUMX of the Police Duties Execution Act, and refers to "a person who has reasonable grounds to suspect that he or she has committed a crime" or "about a crime that has already been committed." It is a power that can be used not only for the prevention of crime, but also for the investigation of crimes that have already been committed.
The request to refrain from going out due to the declaration of a state of emergency has no force, and of course there is no provision to expand the police's authority, so it is not possible to question the person's duties. I only called out to them and never asked them why they were out or what their home address was. (Of course, it is out of the question for those who meet the requirements of the job question...)
However, such "calling out" has long been carried out in a positive way by the Japanese police, which are developing activities in cooperation with local people.
``♪ Well, hello, you two are whispering on the bench, and you're going home early. Although it is a passage, the content of the lyrics is a humorous "call" of a policeman who is loved by the area.
The KyoAni arsonist that occurred last year spent the night on a bench in a park near the scene... At that time, I was told, "Hello, my brother is sleeping on the bench..." ..
It's not a big deal to talk about incidents and accidents, but I think that "hot calls" by police officers, which are a little different from job questions, are indispensable for a safe and secure society.
