Reply:
(a)
(b)
(c)
Mr President,
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of the district which had the highest number of ID Card checks carried out by the Police during the past year, and the reasons thereof;
whether the Police has any mechanism to guard against police officers abusing their authority in carrying out ID Card checks, so as to prevent such checks from becoming a harassment to the public; and
whether, in the past three years, there were cases in which police officers were the subject of complaints about abuse of their authority in carrying out ID Card checks and were disciplined; if so, of the number of such cases?
In Hong Kong, the requirement to carry an Identity (ID) Card arises from the necessity to combat the ongoing problem of illegal immigration, a matter of great concern to the community. Apart from other measures, for example, close liaison with the Chinese side to prevent the entry of illegal immigrants (IIs), we believe that ID Card checks serve as a strong deterrent to tackle the problem of illegal immigration. It sends a clear signal that no IIs will go unnoticed in Hong Kong. Our measures have been very effective. The total number of IIs arrested has continued to drop since 1993. When compared with 1995, the total number of IIs arrested in 1996 dropped by 13.6%...
Against the above background, the answers to the three parts of the question are as follows-
(a)
The Police only keep statistics on the number of ID Card checks according to Police Regions. In 1996, the Hong Kong Island Police Region had the highest number of ID Card checks.
The number of checks in a particular Police Region depends on a number of factors including the crime situation, job opportunities for IIs, illegal immigration trend and transient population. In the case of Hong Kong Island, the large population together with good job opportunities and many popular spots for burglary contribute to the high number of ID Card checks.