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Police Tactical Unit
PUBLIC ORDER
The Police Tactical Unit (PTU), based at Fanling in the New Territories, provides men and women of the force with crowd control and internal security training. A reserve of seven riot control companies is available for use as an im- mediate striking force in any type of emergency.
All police officers, as part of their career, serve nine months with the PTU, to which they are usually posted during their third year of service. Men of the unit are known to the public as 'blue berets'. They are immediately available for duty when trouble of any kind occurs. During the June landslides, PTU companies were among the first to carry out rescue operations and they subsequently played a major part in controlling the two disaster areas.
The unit was visited by officers from Papua and New Guinea, Bermuda, Sierra Leone, the Philippines, West Germany, Korea, Japan, Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom. Demonstrations were given to visitors from the Royal College of Defence Studies and to senior police officers.
Administration
Mr N. G. Rolph, a Deputy Commissioner of Police, retired from the force in September to become Hong Kong's first Commissioner for Narcotics. He was suc- ceeded by Mr C. J. R. Dawson.
At the end of the year, there were 54 projects in the police building programme. They included four district headquarters, five divisional headquarters, additional urban and rural police stations as well as accommodation for training and ancillary units. Police buildings completed during 1972 were offices and kennels at Kai Tak Inter- national Airport for the Dog Unit, and a police post at Sai Wan Tsui built in connection with the High Island Water Scheme. Stage III of Police Headquarters, a 20-storey office block being built adjacent to the headquarters building in Arsenal Street, was close to completion at the end of the year; and two police stations at Ngau Tau Kok and Tsz Wan Shan were also nearly ready.
Towards the end of 1971, the Commissioner appointed a committee to see which duties being performed by police officers could be undertaken by civilian staff. The committee conducted a wide ranging survey, as a result of which, arrangements were made for some police officers to be replaced by civilian officers on an experimental basis. The committee took into account such factors as promotion structures, recruit- ment prospects, continuity and internal security. Recommendations were submitted to the Colonial Secretariat in November.
During the year, the Planning and Research Section completed projects concern- ing conditions of service, police procedures, equipment, training, data processing and secondary educational facilities for police schoolchildren. Approval was given to begin detailed planning of a police cadet school.
Following the successful introduction of a smarter winter uniform for rank and file officers last year, a new summer uniform is to be introduced next year.