Literacy is a condition of recruitment and a knowledge of Cantonese is compulsory. Chinese members of the Force are taught basic English at the Training School so that all recruits in passing out of the school have acquired at least some knowledge of English.
Traffic
The steady increase of vehicles on the roads continued, reaching a total of 16,746, excluding Service vehicles which now number several thousand, as against 16,028 for the preceding year.
A noteworthy feature of the year was the fall by nearly 1,500 in the number of road accidents. Until the middle of 1950 the number of road accidents had risen following the increase in the volume of traffic. The fall is attributed to the intensive study of the causes of road accidents and the rigorous prosecution of those offences principally contributing to them. Comparative figures were:-
1947
1948
1949
1950
1951
Fatal
132
95
119
129
104
Serious Injury
226
462
618
603
490
Slight Injury
1,738
1,952
2,786
2,976
2,328
Damage only
3,233
3,871
4,923
4,619
3,937
Total
5,329
6,380
8,446 8,327
6,859
No. of vehicles registered:-
Developments
9,850 II,749 14,516 16,028 16,746
Amongst the year's innovations were the introduction of the 999 call system for telephone calls from the public to the Police, the appointment of the first Police chemist and a ballistics officer of long experience to the Police forensic laboratory, the recruitment of the first Io women constables, the creation of a Police driving school and the formation of a Police Band.
Crime
The total number of reports of all kinds was 289,377 as compared with 264,204 in 1950. Of the 1951 total 77,763 disclosed no offence after investigation, leaving 211,614 recorded offences.
There was a notable increase in the number of larcenies, a large proportion of which were however of a trivial nature. The holding down of serious crime in the present overcrowded state of the Colony was only affected by the most intensive and unremitting preventive work.
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