LAW, ORDER AND RECORDS
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assistant commissioners in charge of these districts exercise their command through police divisions which are divided into sub- divisions and post areas. The two main day-to-day functions of the uniformed branch are the maintenance of beats and other patrols and the manning of report rooms which are located in all police stations where a duty officer and small staff are available 24 hours a day to take appropriate action on all reports and complaints received from the public or from officers on beat patrol. This action includes the maintenance of detailed police records, the planning and conducting of raids and the charging and initial custody of offenders.
The uniformed branch also provides the emergency units, one in each district, which are available at immediate notice to deal with any incident requiring more manpower than beat constables in the area can provide. The emergency units also carry out mobile patrols in radio-equipped cars and are directed to locations in response to '999' calls. These calls are made to the police district control rooms in Hong Kong and Kowloon, also manned by the uniformed branch.
One of the most exacting tasks of the uniformed branch during the year was the control of queues at water distribution points. In all districts which were provided with stand-pipes, uniformed police were on duty to ensure that queueing was controlled and disturbances avoided. In the urban districts the uniformed branch assisted at fires and house collapses and in the New Territories they provided the extra patrolling necessary in the frontier area to keep down illegal immigration.
The Special Branch is responsible for preventing and detecting subversive activities and for supplying the intelligence necessary for the maintenance of internal security.
The Anti-illegal Immigration Branch has remained on a super- numerary establishment except for personnel of the marine division which was transferred from the New Territories district in 1962. The future of this branch depends on the adoption of recommenda- tions made by a Government Working Party which has been con- sidering the future control of territorial waters.
Illegal Immigration. Information indicates that the number of persons who succeeded in entering Hong Kong illegally or en- deavoured to do so steadily declined during the year. This decline
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