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Public Order
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FOR Hong Kong's law enforcement agencies, 1978 was a year of consolidation, steady progress and accomplishment. The Royal Hong Kong Police Force, a well-equipped and efficient police force, is mainly responsible for maintaining public order through- out the territory. However, significant contributions towards the safety and welfare of the community are also made by the Customs and Excise Service, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), the Prisons Department and the Fire Services Department.
Police Force
The Royal Hong Kong Police Force will best remember 1978 as a year of expansion and reorganisation reaching to the topmost echelons and touching on most formations within the force.
A further restructuring of Police Headquarters allowed for even greater emphasis to be placed on personnel and management services, training, staff relations, discipline and planning, and research. To implement this, the creation of 11 new posts was approved by government at directorate and gazetted officer level.
Early in the year a Home Office team of three police experts, headed by Mr J. W. D. Crane, Inspector of Constabulary for Wales and South East England, was assigned to advise the Commissioner of Police on the organisation and operation of the force with particular regard to discipline, staff management and morale, chain of command and channels of communication at all levels, sources and standard of recruitment, and relationship with the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
As a result of this consultation, it was determined that there had been some imbalance in organisation, man-management and control due, in the main, to the force's rapid expansion and modernisation in recent years. Although many of the recommendations were already under review, proposals put forward formed the basis of subsequent changes in areas such as management, development, housing, welfare, staff relations, promotion systems and internal communications.
The year was also notable for the number of new police stations opened; of the five new premises which came into operation, four were in the New Territories where the need for more adequate policing has been brought about by the development of rural areas. Also in the new buildings programme, the first of the current steps in solving the housing problems of junior officers was taken with the opening of 400 units in Kwai Chung late in the year. Other junior officers' married quarters are under con- struction in Sha Tin and Ho Man Tin.