302 Public Order
Crime Prevention
The Crime Prevention Bureau kept up its publicity efforts in improving citizens' awareness of telephone deception, burglary and theft in order to prevent the public at large from becoming victims of these crimes.
The bureau also continued to strengthen its engagement with the private security industry.
Forensic Support
The Identification Bureau continued to play a significant role in supporting crime investigations and prosecutions by providing a professional fingerprint and photographic service and by collecting DNA evidence from crime scenes. The indispensable and technologically advanced latent fingerprint recovery service provided supporting evidence for the detection of numerous major crimes. In 2008, the bureau established the criminal history of 31 507 individuals, linking 2912 people to 3 028 criminal cases.
The new Computer Assisted Palmprint and Fingerprint Identification System was implemented in May. Using the latest computerised palmprint and fingerprint search technology, the new system not only significantly enhanced the productivity, efficiency and accuracy of identification, but also enabled the Police to tackle many cases which otherwise would have remained unresolved.
The Forensic Firearms Examination Bureau is responsible for providing quality forensic services in relation to firearms evidence in Hong Kong. Replacement of the bureau's existing Ballistics Identification System and Scanning Electron Microscope was in progress.
Liaison
The Liaison Bureau serves as a conduit for communication between the Hong Kong Police Force on the one hand, and the Mainland Public Security Bureau, overseas law enforcement agencies and their local consulate officials on the other.
Part of the core business of the bureau is to assist the Department of Justice in handling overseas requests for mutual legal assistance in criminal matters and the surrender of fugitive offenders. Up to 2008, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government had signed bilateral agreements with 25 jurisdictions on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters and with 17 jurisdictions on surrender of fugitive offenders.
In 2008, the bureau joined forces with the Mainland and Macao to combat cross-boundary crimes, further cementing the ties created at the operational, intelligence and strategic levels at the 14th Hong Kong-Guangdong-Macao Tripartite Criminal Investigation Department Heads Meeting in April.
During the year, the Police continued to send officers on secondment to the INTERPOL General Secretariat in Lyon, France, and its Regional Liaison Office in Bangkok, Thailand. They have also established attachment programmes with various overseas law enforcement agencies.