COMMUNICATIONS AND TRANSPORT
208. A Senior Superintendent of Police is in charge of the Com- munications and Transport Branch which is part of Police Headquarters. The uniformed establishment of this branch is 3 Senior Officers, Junior Officers, 24 N.C.O's and 62 P.C's. The civilian establishment includes 54 radio and radar technicians.
Communications
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209. Typhoon 'Wanda' caused substantial damage to the Force communications system, but all radio networks were repaired and in operation again within 6 hours of the passing of the typhoon. A major storm casualty was a 150 ft. steel aerial mast at the Victoria Peak repeater station.
210. The anti-illegal immigration operations necessitated a complete reorganization of Marine radio communications. Provision of equipment and networks for the additional craft deployed was achieved at short notice by using sets taken over from other police formations and establishing a new repeater station.
211. The number of telephone calls has gradually increased with the expansion of the Force. A start has been made on decentralizing the police telephone system in order to reduce loading on the main exchanges.
212. The Radio Control Rooms handled 21,804 messages which included 14,290 ‘999' calls. These resulted in the arrest of 976 persons. There were 122 false '999' calls.
213. The teleprinter network passed 22,783 messages.
Transport
214. The Transport Section of the Branch has conducted a number of trials on different types of new vehicles to replace existing transport. A number of 15 cwt. trucks have been tested for police purposes to replace the Landrovers in some of their present functions where lower performance vehicles would be acceptable.
215. Motor scooters have not proved to be satisfactory for traffic patrol duty and tests have been made on light motor-cycles which could replace the scooters as well as a number of 350 c.c. motor-cycles which are over-powered for traffic work in Hong Kong. Changes in vehicles will be made in the light of these tests.
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