ENG-1989 — Page 288

PUBLIC ORDER

The field of forensic photography also entered a new era through the introduction of high-speed automatic film processing and printing facilities. The Photographic Section of the bureau produced 162 259 monochrome photographs and 809 175 colour prints and slides in 1989.

Ballistics and Firearms Identification

Officers of the Ballistics and Firearms Identification Bureau handled 296 cases compared with 235 cases in 1988. Altogether, 93 commercially-manufactured firearms were seized as well as 20 home-made firearms, a disturbing increase over the 20 commercial weapons and 17 home-made weapons seized in 1988.

The microprocessor-operated indices in use in the bureau are being expanded and now cover various aspects of firearms technical investigative techniques. Indices in use and under preparation include an outstanding shooting crimes index, case information retrieval index, a rifling characteristics file and an indexing method for the filing and recovery of abstracts from technical publications.

Interpol

The International Criminal Police Organisation, or Interpol, was established in 1914 and has police forces from 147 countries as members.

The Hong Kong Interpol Bureau, which was formed in September 1960, works closely with police forces throughout the world as well as with various government departments and with consulates and commissions in Hong Kong. The bureau has a small investigation unit which undertakes minor enquiries on behalf of other member countries. Requests for extradition are also processed by the bureau.

Two officers from the Hong Kong police are permanently seconded in rotation to the Interpol General Secretariat in Lyons, France, and close liaison is maintained with the secretariat through them.

Public Order

There was one isolated outbreak of public disorder in June. This was limited to the Mong Kok area of Kowloon and was quickly brought under control.

During May and June, large numbers of officers were deployed to police a series of massive public processions, meetings and concerts organised in connection with the pro- democracy movement in China and subsequent events in Beijing. Police resources to cover these demonstrations were tightly stretched but it is not without significance that, apart from the Mong Kok incident, throughout this very tense period there was no disorder and no crimes were reported arising from the demonstrations.

Officers of the Police Tactical Unit (PTU) were deployed for regional duties guarding and escorting Vietnamese boat people and to deal with outbreaks of violence in the detention centres.

Despite the many calls on the PTU throughout the year, training continued in accordance with the force programme. A total of 1 700 officers from the rank of constable to superintendent received training in internal security tactics and crowd control at the PTU base in the New Territories.

Routine training with PTU staff and district internal security units continued through the year. In addition a series of short refresher courses were run for officers of the district internal security companies.

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