PUBLIC ORDER
Staff Training
The department's Staff Training Institute provides training for both new and serving officers. All recruit officers and assistant officers go through an orientation training programme for a period of 23 weeks and 20 weeks respectively. The training syllabus includes the relevant laws of Hong Kong, foot-drill, self-defence, physical training, weaponry, anti-riot drill, first-aid, criminology, penology, basic psychology, social work and leadership training. Prior to completion of probation, officers and assistant officers are required to undergo further training in anti-riot techniques for eight weeks and seven weeks respectively.
Development training and job-oriented courses are provided throughout the year for serving officers to update their professional knowledge, to prepare for promotion and equip selected officers for duties in specialised fields such as counselling, after-care, nursing, psychological services and physical education. Weekly in-service training is carried out within institutions to cater for the needs of individual institutions.
Society for the Rehabilitation of Offenders, Hong Kong
The Society for the Rehabilitation of Offenders, Hong Kong, is a voluntary organisation founded originally in 1957 as the Hong Kong Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society. It provides care and supervision for ex-offenders who are given non-custodial sentences and persons released from prisons. Services provided include casework, group work, counselling, hostel accommodation, employment guidance, recreational activities and care for those who have a history of mental illness.
Civil Aid Services
The Civil Aid Services (CAS) is an auxiliary emergency relief organisation. Its main role is to support other regular government services in tackling emergency situations. The CAS is financed by government and has an establishment of 3 818 uniformed and disciplined adult volunteers, 3 232 cadets and 126 permanent staff.
Role and Responsibilities
With heavy emphasis on coping with natural disasters, the tasks of the CAS are numerous and far-reaching. The volunteers are trained to perform counter-disaster duties during tropical cyclones, when landslips and flooding occur, to search for and rescue persons trapped in collapsed buildings, to fight forest fires and to patrol country parks, to manage refugee camps, to combat oil pollution at sea, to assist the police in crowd control and incident management and to perform first-aid, casualty handling and evacuation. They also carry out difficult mountain rescue operations. On any weekend or public holiday it is normal for over 500 volunteers to perform duty.
The CAS is also very heavily committed in the performance of civic duties in normal times. During the year, adult volunteers help to organise and provide crowd control, communications and marshalling services in charity fund-raising activities, government campaigns and at other public functions.
Vietnamese Illegal Immigrant Duties
The CAS permanent staff and volunteers are presently required to manage two Vietnamese Centres, namely the Kai Tak Vietnamese Boat People Departure/Detention Centre for
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