TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Tuesday (Aug. 23) ordered a review of the rules for police self-defense and for minimum-security prisons following the fatal stabbing of two police officers in Tainan City.

A suspect named Lin Hsin-wu (林信吾) failed to return to a minimum-security prison after leaving for a family visit Aug. 13-15, and stabbed two officers to death who tried to subdue him using pepper spray Monday (Aug. 22). He was arrested after stepping off a bus in Hsinchu City early Tuesday morning.

President Tsai told the Cabinet to introduce the necessary legal amendments to allow police officers to improve their self-defense, while also reviewing the use of minimum-security prisons, Radio Taiwan International reported. Critics have said there are too many restrictions on the use of guns by police, making it impossible for them to protect themselves sufficiently against aggressive criminals.

Cabinet members later said that serious criminals would no longer be housed in minimum-security facilities where the inmates were allowed to visit relatives during weekends. During the past 10 years, 49 prisoners escaped from minimum-security prisons, with one disappearing since March and another listed as missing since Monday.

During the afternoon, Tsai traveled to Tainan to pay her respects to the two murdered police officers.