ENG-1977 — Page 175

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PUBLIC ORDER

Administration

The force establishment at the end of the year totalled 22,164 all ranks, an increase of 1,506 on the 1976 figure. Strength increased by 1,503 to total 20,814 at the end of the year

6.09 per cent short of the authorised establishment. The women police element of the force is set at 10 per cent of the overall establishment. During the year, 41 women inspectors and 244 women constables were taken on strength, lifting the total complement of women to 1,738. The number of civilian staff rose by 153 to 3,217.

To keep pace with continuing expansion, extensive recruitment throughout the year achieved a total of 10,465 applications for constable appointments and 3,696 for local inspectorate appointments. Some 341 inspectors, including 193 from over- seas, were taken on strength, compared with 211 in 1976, 153 in 1975 and 168 in 1974. The number of constables taken on totalled 1,795, compared with 1,738 in 1976, 1,454 in 1975 and 2,222 in 1974. The educational qualifications of recruit constables continued to improve. Of those appointed, 1,432 had secondary education qualifica- tions and a further 186 possessed the qualifications required for recruit inspectors.

Training

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The Police Cadet School doubled its strength of cadets to almost 600 following the opening of a second school site at Dodwell's Ridge, Sheung Shui, at the beginning of the

at Dodwell's The extra cadets were admitted at intervals in five intakes year. Ridge and at the main school site at Fan Gardens, Fanling. It was the school's first departure from an annual intake and, in the long term, it is intended to accept new cadets every two months.

Both the Fanling and Sheung Shui sites are temporary pending the building at Shuen Wan, near Plover Cove, of a permanent school to hold 1,200 cadets. Work on the site formation is expected to begin soon and the permanent school should be completed late in 1980.

At Fan Gardens, the school's fourth anniversary was marked in September with the passing out of the third group of cadets to complete two years' training.

Of the 146 cadets, 123 went on to join the police as constables. All but one of the remainder opted to join' either the Customs and Excise Service, the Fire Services Department or the Prisons Department. The exception - the first cadet to opt not to join any of the disciplined services went to England to continue his studies. He hopes to return to Hong Kong later and join the police as an inspector.

The Police Training School at Aberdeen was reorganised during the year to provide for most forms of basic and continuation training - including detective training previously handled by the Detective Training School. Only marine police and drivers are now trained elsewhere.

At the end of 1977, there were 977 recruit constables and 220 probationary inspec- tors in the school, and a further 88 officers of all ranks were under continuation training. The school operated at full capacity during the year. Throughput totalled 2,780 constables and 488 inspectors for basic training, and 399 all ranks for continua- tion training.

Standard basic training lasts 20 weeks for recruit constables and 36 weeks for probationary inspectors, including eight weeks' Cantonese tuition for overseas officers.