Tokyo police chief reprimanded for alleged murder by policeman

(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)

TOKYO, Sept. 20

(Kyodo)

The National Public Safety Commission on Thursday reprimanded the head of Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department and other supervisors of a police officer who allegedly shot dead a female acquaintance before killing himself in August.

The department the same day sent papers on the deceased officer, Hidekazu Tomono, 40, who worked at the Tachikawa Police Station, to prosecutors on the murder charge and announce a set of measures to prevent such incidents from recurring, department officials said.

Those subject to the reprimand include Takayoshi Yashiro, superintendent general of the department, and Tachikawa station chief Koichi Matsumoto who had his salary cut by 10 percent for three months and will resign Friday to take the blame.

It is the third time a Tokyo police chief has been reprimanded. The first time followed an incident in 1978 in which a patrol officer broke into the home of a female college student and killed her, while the second was over a 1997 case in which a police investigator made up an amphetamine possession case.