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Public Order

Anti-smuggling Operations

Overall, smuggling in Hong Kong is under effective control. That said, smuggling across the Hong Kong-Mainland boundary remains under close monitoring by law enforcement agencies. During the year, 185 Hong Kong-Mainland smuggling attempts were detected, with 204 people arrested and $373 million worth of smuggled goods seized. Mobile phones, cameras and accessories, and precious metals were the main items smuggled into the Mainland. Cigarettes, which are cheaper in the Mainland, and counterfeit goods were often smuggled into Hong Kong.

The Customs and Excise Department collaborates with other law enforcement agencies to combat smuggling through intelligence exchange and parallel operations. It works closely with the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department and the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department to detect and prevent the smuggling of food and animals.

Fire Services Department

The Fire Services Department fights fires and protects life and property in the event of fires and other calamities. The department also provides emergency ambulance services, and formulates and enforces fire safety policies and measures. It plans and builds fire stations and ambulance depots to cope with the territory's development and service needs, and to implement the government's policy of providing the fastest response possible to emergencies.

Its Fire and Ambulance Services Academy provides training services for the department, other public and private organisations as well as its Mainland and overseas counterparts.

The department has well-trained personnel, advanced communications systems and modern. equipment. It employs 10,205 uniformed and 764 civilian members, and operates 1,074 fire appliances, ambulances and supporting vehicles and 24 fire vessels.

Firefighting and Rescue

Of the 33,463 fire calls received in 2018, seven were classified as major fires of No 3 alarm. Accidents in the process of cooking constituted the major cause of fire, accounting for 1,512 cases. General electrical faults caused 820 fires, while the careless handling or disposal of lighted materials, such as cigarette ends, matches and candles, caused 776 fires. Unwanted alarms, triggered mainly by faulty automatic alarm systems, made up 69.5 per cent of the total number of fire calls.

The department also provides rescue services for traffic accidents, shipwrecks, people trapped in lifts or locked in rooms, gas or hazardous material leakages, building collapses, floods, landslides, industrial accidents, people stranded on hillsides and attempts to jump from a height. It handled 37,815 such calls in 2018.

Ambulance Services

The department's Ambulance Command operates a fleet of emergency ambulances, rapid response vehicles and emergency medical assistant motorcycles manned by paramedics. All the vehicles are fully equipped with life-support equipment such as automated external

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