"
426 HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL-23rd November 1966
without such notice they cannot expect anything in the way of a reasoned answer.
Sir, I will not say any more because I should be encroaching upon the time of my honourable Friend, .Mr Woo.
THE ATTORNEY GENERAL seconded.
***
MR P. C. Woo addressed the Council.
He said: -Your Excellency, it was reported in the "South China Morning Post" of the 20th October 1966 that a Police Inspector who was accused of assaulting a boy, gave his evidence before a Magistrate's Court at Western that he had worked nearly 20 continuous hours that day and that it was necessary to work those hours because, he said "I have to get a number of cases each month".
Reading this report Sir it seems that there is still the practice of requiring members of the Police Force to get a number of cases each month in order to satisfy their superior officers that they have dis- charged their duties and would in due course obtain promotion.
Honourable Members of this Council have always understood that no directive has been issued by the Commissioner of Police to members of the Police Force requiring them to report a number of cases each month. As the Inspector in question was giving evidence on oath it seems that he would not have made such a categorical statement if there were no such practice existed in the Police Force.
On the other hand the report might not have given the exact version of the Inspector's evidence. These words were however given in quotation marks, which I now repeat "I have to get a number of cases each month." It is true that the Inspector in question was defending himself and that he might have made such a statement for the purpose of mitigation that in order to get the sympathy of the Court that in the event of his being convicted he might be dealt with leniently. But I cannot believe that he would dare to perjure himself by making such a categorical statement.
There might not have been such a practice but only an impression in the mind of the members of the Police Force that they have to report a number of cases each month. It is however not in the public interest that such a practice or even such a false impression should have prevailed in the Police Force.
There are contributory factors which tend to show that such a practice does exist.
I have been informed by members of the public that they were often summoned for minor offences such as in breach of the Traffic