Today's sit-in demonstration in Taipei advocating the abandonment of construction of Longmen Nuclear Power Plant, which would be the nation's fourth, had about 16,400 participants at its peak, the National Police Agency (NPA) estimated.
At that time there were about 14,400 people on the Ketagalan Boulevard (three people on each of the street's 4,800 square meters) and 2,000 around the Jingfu Gate (two to three people per square meter across 700 square meters, or 10 percent of the gate's total area).
There were about 8,500 people taking part in the protest at 6 p.m., 13,000 at 9 p.m. and 11,000 at 10 p.m.
The above estimates were made by dividing the areas occupied by the crowds into grids and then multiplying the number of grids used by the average number of people within each grid. This is known as the Herbert Jacobs Method; it was developed by Professor Herbert Jacobs of the University of California, Berkeley. This method is also used to estimate crowd size in countries such as South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia.
Out of respect for the freedom of speech granted by the Constitution of the Republic of China (Taiwan), police agencies deploy their manpower and enforce the law during assemblies and parades based on the principle of "protecting lawful activities, clamping down on illegal activities, and preventing violence". This is intended to maintain balance between protection of freedom of speech and maintenance of public order.
The Executive Yuan stated that so far the anti-nuclear protest activities scheduled for this weekend have proceeded peacefully, and the government will continue to closely observe developments and maintain communication with the public.