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49.
Since 1973 the effective strength of the Force has been
increased by 36% to 20,013, including civilians, and the
new intake is of consistently high quality. In this process
of injecting good new blood into the Force I see the Police
Cadet School playing a steadily increasing role.
The CID has been substantially reorganised and reinforced
at all levels and there has been a marked improvement in
its technical support. But there is room for further
expansion and increase in establishment.
As part of the policy of strengthening Police presence on
the ground and in high-rise buildings 72 neighbourhood Police
Units and Police Reporting Centres have been established.
There is strong demand from the public for expansion of this
coverage.
Reaction-time, and also ability to control and supervise
the work of men on duty, have been greatly improved through
the best rudio system already covering Hong Kong Island,
Kowloon and Teucn Wan/Kwai Chung and gradually to be extended.
Here the immediate object must be to develop the full potential
of this radical improvement in policing capability.
Relations with the public have been gradually improved through
education of the Force, the revision of procedures, the
establishment of Police Community Relations Officers and the
highly successful Junior Police Call.
These drastic changes in numbers deployment professional
techniques and traditional attitudes to the public, have all been
adopted with great speed, at a time when the Force was undergoing the
process of weeding out the corrupt. The necessity for this process
/is accepted