ENG-1981 — Page 189

PUBLIC ORDER

137

assistance such as domestic disputes, accidents, tenancy matters, nuisance complaints, complaints of inaction of other departments, and requests for information and advice.

The Marine Police played a particularly significant role in providing assistance to the public and shore patrols from police launches often formed the only link between the government and residents of various small islands and remote villages. Such remote settlements were visited regularly and day-to-day problems of villagers brought quickly to the attention of various departments. In addition, police launches were regularly engaged in casualty evacuations and often provided assistance to people on board pleasure craft and to canoeists and swimmers.

Community Relations

The force continued to harness closer ties with the public through various public relations schemes Police Community Relations Officers, Neighbourhood Police Units, Junior Police Call (JPC), the Good Citizen Award Scheme and various campaigns. All these efforts have resulted in more people assisting the police in their fight against crime and results were reflected by the fact that 11.4 per cent of all arrests during the year were made by members of the public.

Junior Police Call - the largest youth club of its kind in the world with 287 000 mem- bers - concentrated on a year-long fight youth crime campaign to contain the crime rate involving young people which had taken a sharp rise in the past two years. A vigorous recruitment campaign was started in order to dissuade young people from becoming involved in crime and a central committee, comprising 51 well-known young Hong Kong personalities, was set up with three members allocated to each divisional council. Throughout the year, JPC continued to organise various activities ranging from sporting competitions and camps to fund-raising campaigns for charity and carrying out domestic chores for the aged and the disabled. Weekly radio and television programmes supple- mented club activities.

Five winners of the year's Young People's Help The Police competition visited Canada as part of their prize while another 178 civic-minded citizens, who actively helped the police in combating crime, were given Good Citizen Awards by the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce. This brought to 1 120 the total number of people awarded since the scheme was implemented in 1973. ),

The third series of the popular Chinese television drama On the Beat, which depicts realistically the lives and work of police officers, was produced during the year. Production of the two established weekly Police Report television programmes in Chinese and English which seek help from the public in solving outstanding crimes continued throughout the year with 386 arrests made as a result of information supplied from viewers.

Tr

To extend police services and assistance to tourists who might have language difficulties, a special tourist hotline - 5-29000 – was set up in the Police Public Relations Wing. The hotline is manned round-the-clock by officers who speak English, Chinese and Japanese.

Fight Crime Committee

The Fight Crime Committee continued to plan, organise and co-ordinate government and public efforts to assist the police to combat crime. Chaired by the Secretary for Home Affairs and attended by senior government and unofficial members, the committee oversaw the annual fight crime publicity campaigns with members frequently participating in publicity and promotional activities. It also continued to review territory-wide street