ENG-1990 — Page 315

PUBLIC ORDER

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Call Distribution feature of the enhanced 999 system facilitates speedy handling of incoming calls. A total of 2 000 portable and 75 mobile radios are now available for communicating with patrol officers, deploying them to incidents as required and generally co-ordinating their activities to provide the best coverage of the region.

Additionally, the telephone exchanges for Police Headquarters, Kowloon Regional Headquarters and 20 police stations were replaced during the year. CC II will be implemented in the other land regions and Marine Islands District during 1991.

Information Technology

Expansion of the Information Technology Branch continued into 1990 with 43 additional civilian posts. The staff shortage, especially in the Analyst/Programmer grade, has neces- sitated the continued use of contract resources for various projects.

Phase I of the Enhanced Command and Control Computer System facilitates the efficient response to 999 calls, the handling of incidents, the deployment of police resources and the provision of operational support information to patrol officers.

During the year, the Finance Committee approved a commitment of $17.64 million for the extension of the Criminal Intelligence Computer System to the Narcotics Bureau and the Commercial Crime Bureau and also for the provision of intelligence analyst work- benches.

---The Enhanced Police Operational Nominal Index Computer System will start in February 1991 while operation of the Computer Assisted Fingerprint Identification System will commence in May 1991.

Contracts for the Major Incident Investigation and Disaster Support System (MIIDSS) and the pilot study on the feasibility of the Station Information Communal System (SICS) were awarded in June and September respectively. MIIDSS will be operational in April 1991 and SICS has been scheduled for May 1991.

Twenty-five additional microcomputers and twenty word processors were provided to various formations during the year.

Transport

During 1990, the force vehicle fleet increased by 77 to a total of 2 195 vehicles, including 752 motorcycles. A computerised Transport Management and Information System fac- ilitates vehicle utilisation control and driver management.

The Police Driving School is scheduled to be relocated in 1991 from Kai Tak to the site of the former Police Cadet School in Fanling to make way for further expansion of the airport.

Research

The Research Branch conducts research into existing and proposed police tactics in order to achieve improvements and to evaluate existing and new police equipment to ensure the force has the most appropriate facilities to carry out its duties.

The major projects concluded in 1990 concerned force policy on the establishment and strength of women police; police manpower and procedures in the magistracies, and a preliminary review of the overall force establishment.

Other projects undertaken included a review of the police driver cadre and research to formulate alternative shift systems for uniform branch personnel.

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