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The syllabus was further revised to give more practical and leadership training, with greater emphasis on community involvement and police-public relations. Continua- tion training aims to bring serving officers up to date on new legislation, procedures and techniques, and to reinforce their earlier training and experience.
Among the police who attended the year's detective training courses were officers from the Immigration Department and the Customs and Excise Service, as well as officers from overseas police forces. Representatives from a number of overseas governments and police forces also visited the school to study training methods.
The Police Tactical Unit, based at Fanling, trains members of the force in all aspects of crowd control and internal security. It also provides a reserve of manpower to deal with situations requiring large numbers of trained police.
During the year, 1,320 men and 168 women underwent training at the unit, which gives all members of the force a thorough grounding in anti-riot and crowd control tactics. In addition to performing crowd control duties at the racecourse and football matches, members of the unit carry out house-to-house inquiries, searches for missing persons and general anti-crime operations. The Blue Berets, as they are widely known, are invariably at the scene of any kind of trouble.
The unit is recognised as one of the world's leading internal security training centres. During the year, police officers from Brunei, Fiji, Jamaica and the Bahamas took part in courses. A number of shorter visits also were made by representatives of several other police and armed forces, predominantly from South-east Asia.
The Marine Police Training School provides full-time in-service training for both regular personnel and for auxiliary police undertaking marine work. During the year, 296 regular officers of all ranks and 61 auxiliaries completed courses on seaman- ship, engineering, wireless telegraphy and coastal navigation. In addition, 47 officers and men took specialised courses at the Hong Kong Polytechnic, where new radar navigation training courses for marine launch commanders and senior non-commis- sioned officers were introduced in August.
Auxiliary Police
The Royal Hong Kong Auxiliary Police Force is made up of 4,236 part-time men and women police. Throughout 1977, a daily average of 834 auxiliary officers carried out a wide variety of constabulary duties alongside the regular police. Some 48 officers received commendations for good work.
All auxiliaries are required to undergo 14 days and 96 hours' training a year. Seven of the training days are spent at an annual camp. Selected officers also attend training courses run by the regular force on such subjects as weapons, internal security, driving, adventure sports and command techniques.
Customs and Excise Service
The Preventive Service was renamed the Customs and Excise Service in August to bring it into line with the functions of its counterparts overseas, and to give it a formal title that is recognised throughout the world.
The name change has not affected Hong Kong's free trade policies. The absence of a general Customs tariff and the unrestricted movement of cargo in and out of Hong Kong continues, except where control is necessary for a specific reason.