英国人女性殺害 容疑者を追い詰めた民間情報

Tips from citizens closed net on Ichihashi
The Yomiuri Shimbun (Nov. 13, 2009)
英国人女性殺害　容疑者を追い詰めた民間情報（11月13日付・読売社説）


Tatsuya Ichihashi, the man wanted on suspicion of abandoning the body of a British woman in Chiba Prefecture in 2007, has finally been arrested.
　英国人女性の死体遺棄容疑で指名手配されていた市橋達也容疑者が、やっと逮捕された。

The Chiba prefectural police intend to question Ichihashi on suspicion that he also murdered English-language teacher Lindsay Hawker. The police must leave no stone unturned as they obtain a detailed account of Ichihashi's life as a fugitive on the run for about two years and seven months.
　千葉県警は今後、殺人容疑で追及する。２年７か月に及ぶ逃亡生活の詳細も解明しなければならない。

Hawker's body was found on the balcony of Ichihashi's apartment in Ichikawa. Ichihashi fled the scene just before police officers, who were at his apartment to question him, found her body.
　市橋容疑者の住むマンションのベランダから女性の他殺体が見つかっていた。その直前、マンションを訪れた警察官の職務質問を振り切って逃げていた。

We wonder if the police investigation was conducted properly. Hard questions need to be asked about why it took so long until the suspect was finally brought into custody. This will include examining whether the initial investigations were appropriate, among other matters.
　職務質問の際の警察の態勢に問題はなかったのか。初動捜査のあり方を含め、捜査が長期化したことの検証が必要だ。

The incident took place in Chiba Prefecture. After making his escape, Ichihashi reportedly moved around cities including Fukuoka, Osaka and Nagoya. This suggests police forces across the nation must work more closely together on serious cases.
　千葉県で起きた事件だが、容疑者は福岡や大阪、名古屋を逃げ回っていた。全国警察の連携が、ますます重要になっている。

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Surgeons not free from blame

Ichihashi altered his appearance by undergoing several plastic surgeries. Police only became aware of this after they were tipped off by a cosmetic surgery clinic in Nagoya that had performed rhinoplasty on him late last month. We applaud the clinic for coming forward.
　容疑者は、整形手術を繰り返して人相を変えていた。この事実がわかったのは、名古屋市の美容整形外科医院から警察に通報があったからだ。まさに、この医院の大手柄だった。

Ichihashi used an alias when he registered for the nose job. When he visited the clinic, his face reportedly showed traces of having undergone a number of plastic surgeries. Ichihashi's appearance was said to be already significantly different from that in a picture released by police when they put him on the wanted list.
　市橋容疑者は先月下旬、偽名を使って、この医院で鼻の整形手術を受けた。来院したときは、すでに何度か整形手術を受けた跡があり、指名手配中の写真とはまったく違っていたという。

Tidbits of information began trickling in from the public after the police released a photo of Ichihashi taken at the clinic. Details emerged from staff at a construction company at which Ichihashi worked as a live-in employee. The police finally swooped on Ichihashi after a tip from a ferry company employee.
　その後、警察が同医院で撮影された写真を公開し、住み込みで働いていた建設会社などから警察に情報が相次いだ。逮捕の決め手となったのも、フェリー会社の社員からの通報だった。

Many people must be wondering when and where Ichihashi had the operations that transformed his facial features. If any plastic surgeon was aware that he or she put the wanted man under the knife, it would without a shadow of doubt be an obstruction of a criminal investigation. Such an act could be considered harboring or enabling the escape of a perpetrator in violation of the Penal Code.
　それにしても、市橋容疑者は人相を変えてしまうような整形手術を、いつごろ、どこで受けたのだろうか。手配中の男と気づいて整形外科医が手術していれば、明白な捜査妨害だ。刑法の犯人隠避などに触れる可能性もある。

About 1,400 suspects are on the police wanted list. Police and medical institutions should take measures to prevent these suspects from undergoing plastic surgery in an attempt to continue evading the long arm of the law.
　警察が指名手配して行方を追っている容疑者は約１４００人に上る。逃走手段としての整形手術を防ぐために、警察と医療機関側で対策を講じるべきだろう。

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Rewards can play useful role

The National Police Agency offered a reward in Ichihashi's case. The agency is considering paying a reward to the person or people who provided key information that led to Ichihashi's arrest. Any such payments would be the first since the bounty system was introduced in April 2007.
　警察庁の公費懸賞金制度の対象事件でもあった。同庁は今回、有力情報の提供者に懸賞金を支払うことを検討しているが、そうなれば、２００７年４月に制度ができて以来、初の適用例となる。

It is a given that the investigative abilities of police should be in the forefront of crime investigations. But the cooperation of the public is an essential tool when seeking the arrest of a suspect, regardless of whether a reward is on offer.
　まず警察の捜査能力が問われるのはもちろんだが、懸賞金の有無にかかわらず、容疑者逮捕には民間の協力も欠かせない。

Female university students in Chiba and Shimane prefectures recently have been brutally slain. Strings of suspicious deaths have been uncovered in the Tokyo metropolitan area and in Tottori Prefecture.
　島根や千葉の女子大生が殺害される凶悪な事件が起きた。首都圏や鳥取の連続不審死もある。

Police must constantly think about how and when leads they have gleaned in their investigations should be made public so they can unearth more information from citizens that leads to the resolution of criminal cases.
　民間からの情報を得る上で、どのように捜査情報を公開していくことが効果的か、警察も絶えず工夫すべきだろう。

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Nov. 13, 2009)
（2009年11月13日00時55分 読売新聞）