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Following is a question by the Hon Tony Tse and a written reply by the Acting Secretary for Security, Mr John Lee, in the Legislative Council today (November 4):
Question:
It has been reported that community groups or organisations may submit applications to the Police for hiring police officers to help maintain order in the activities held by them. Moreover, film and television production organisations, such as film companies and television stations, may apply for hiring police officers for intermittent traffic control to facilitate location filming. The Police will charge fees for the provision of such services (charged services). In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) apart from facilitation of location filming, of the types of activities for which the Police will provide charged services, and whether such activities include public assemblies and processions;
(2) of the respective numbers of applications received and approved by the authorities for the provision of charged services, the number of police officers deployed for the purpose and the total revenue concerned, in each year from 2012 to end of June this year (set out in the Annex 1);
(3) of the considerations and criteria based on which the Police determine whether or not to approve applications for the provision of charged services and the number of police officers to be deployed;
(4) whether a uniform set of fees is applicable to the charged services provided for activities of different nature; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that, as well as the criteria and factors based on which the Police determine the fees concerned;
(5) whether it conducted any review of the fees mentioned in (4) in the past five years; if so, of the dates of the last review and revision, as well as the details of the revision; if not, the reasons for that, and whether it will conduct a review in the coming year;
(6) whether it has assessed the pressure and impacts on police work brought about by the provision of charged services; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(7) of the respective numbers of police officers deployed by the Police to maintain order during the "January 1 march" and the "July 1 march" each year from 2012 to 2015 and the total revenue, calculated on the basis of the fees at that time, that would have been received respectively had the same numbers and ranks of police officers been deployed to provide charged services (set out in the Annex 2)?
Reply:
President,
According to Section 66 of the Police Force Ordinance (Cap. 232), on the application of any person, the Commissioner of Police (the Commissioner) may, if he thinks fit, detail any police officer or police officers to perform special services in, upon or about any premises or business or vessel specified by the applicant. The applicant shall pay to the Commissioner for the services of any such officer or officers so detailed such fees as the Commissioner may think fit. As soon as practicable after receiving such fees, the Commissioner must pay the fees into the Police Welfare Fund.
The Government's reply to the Hon Tony Tse's question is as follows:
(1) to (3) and (6) to (7) The Police have all along been handling applications requesting for special services to be performed by police officers in accordance with the Police Force Ordinance as well as established procedures and guidelines. The Police shall, having regard to the types and nature of the activities involved and the special services so requested, determine whether to grant approvals to such applications on the premise that daily police work will not be affected.
Under the current guidelines, police officers shall not provide such special services as security guards or bodyguards etc. Special services provided by police officers in the past included rendering assistance in maintaining order inside the venues of sports competitions held by outside organisations.
The Police will approve applications for performing special services by police officers only on the condition that no police work will be affected and that there are available resources. To ensure that daily police work remains unaffected, such special services shall not consume too much time of police officers. The number of police officers to be detailed will depend on the available manpower of the Police, the needs of the special services concerned, as well as actual circumstances. Once encountering a crime or an illegal act in the course of performing special services, police officers shall immediately discharge their duties as police officers, which include taking law enforcement actions, assisting the people who are affected and reporting to their superiors etc.
The deployment of manpower by the Police in handling public processions and meetings for the protection of public safety and public order is a statutory duty of the Police and is not a kind of special services to be performed by police officers on request. In handling public order events, the Police will conduct a holistic risk assessment based on past experience and the latest situation for manpower deployment and formulation of operational plans and contingencies. As manpower deployment by the Police in handling public processions involve operational deployment details, it is not appropriate to disclose such information.
Statistics of applications requesting for special services performed by police officers from 2012 to the first half of 2015 are at Annex 3.
(4) to (5) Fees payable by any persons for the special services performed by police officers for which they have applied are determined by the Police according to the costing information compiled by the Treasury and the Government Logistics Department, having regard to the number and rank of police officers to be detailed and the related transportation fee. The Police will review and revise the fees at appropriate times according to the latest information provided by the relevant departments. The last review was conducted in December 2014 and subsequently the Police have revised relevant fees.
Ends/Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Issued at HKT 18:34
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