Police-1967-1968 — Page 42

Ballistics Office

136. For the greater part of the year the Ballistics Office was manned by only one Officer, an expert on both ballistics and explosives. This officer had an extremely busy year. During the bomb phase of confron- tation he was assisted by teams of Military demolition experts. A total of 9,052 reports of suspected bombs were received of which 1,520 proved to be real bombs and 4,904 were hoax or simulated bombs. The remainder were false reports.

137. The Ballistics Officer also investigated six criminal shooting cases, 25 Police shooting cases, 67 explosions and attended Court on 51 occasions.

PART V

TRAFFIC

GENERAL REVIEW

138. The work of the Traffic Branch was seriously disrupted during 1967 by disturbances. Many of the staff were diverted to emergency duties to the detriment of normal traffic enforcement.

139. During the disturbances extensive damage was done to parking meters, bringing to total damaged or destroyed during the year to 2,652. Repair or replacement was subsequently effected, but the 1967-68 pro- gramme for the installation of further meters has been deferred.

140. Strikes by Communist public transport workers during 1967 caused considerable inconvenience to the public and led to an increase in various forms of illegal public transport. By 31st March, 1968, transport facilities were more or less back to their pre-confrontation levels of passenger carrying capacity. However, the use of illegal public transport, which had been of considerable assistance during the time of the disturbances, still continues.

TRAFFIC PLANNING

141. Fourteen new light signal installations were brought into operation during the year, their purpose being to improve the flow of traffic in the vicinity of resettlement estates and to provide pedestrians with greater safety on road crossings.

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