Police Force
The Hong Kong Police Force has operational responsibility for
crime prevention and detection; the maintenance of law and
order; traffic matters and the detection of illegal immigration.
At December 31, the Force had 33 514 members, comprising
27 588 disciplined staff and 5 926 civilians. Police operations
are reinforced by 5 455 volunteer citizens of the Hong Kong
Auxiliary Police Force.
The Handover Ceremony to mark the transfer of sovereignty
in June/July and the Annual Meetings of the World Bank
Group/International Monetary Fund (WB/IMF) in September
presented unprecedented policing challenges. The Force was
wholly responsible for the security of these two major events
and the protection of all visiting dignitaries where necessary.
Both security operations went smoothly and the favourable
law and order situation in Hong Kong was maintained
throughout the transition period.
Following the promulgation of the Force Vision and Statement
of Common Purposes and Values, a set of strategic directions
has been formulated to govern the Force's management and
operations over the next five years.
Operationally, it is resolved to maintain the rapid and effective
response capability of uniformed Police officers and to
enhance its professionalism in preventing and controlling
crime. On crime prevention, the Force will involve all sections
of the community in the fight against crime. On crime control,
it will focus on improving and enhancing its capability in the
access to and use of crime information; the pursuit of
criminals and investigation of crime cases; and the procedures
for dealing with witnesses and suspects.
These operational priorities will be supported by a series of
management initiatives to promote the Force values through:
wider use of modern technology; a focus on human resource
management; more widespread communication; and better
management of resources.
During the year, the Force conducted its first Customer
Satisfaction Survey and the second Public Opinion Survey.
The customers generally rated the service they received as
quite good or very good (72 per cent), with only a few rating
the service as quite poor or very poor (5 per cent). In general,
the respondents were more than satisfied with the quality of
police services with 73 per cent rating overall performance as
worthy of praise, down from the 1995 opinion survey result
by 5 per cent.
The overall law and order situation continued to improve. The
crime rate of 1 036 cases per 100 000 population in the year
was the lowest in the past 24 years.
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