In a bid to beef up supervisory officers' ability to handle public events, Wan Chai District (WCHDIST) has organised a series of workshops for junior inspectors who will perform such task, hoping they would put theories into practice. 

 

The first workshop was held on January 30 for 14 inspectors comprising nine from Wan Chai Division (WCHDIV) and five from Happy Valley Division. The workshop started with Wan Chai Divisional Commander Tse Ming-yeung giving a briefing on the objectives of a development programme for officers. After this, Wan Chai Task Force Sub-unit Commander Lam Yan-yi explained the current trend of demonstrations and the practical skills of handling large-scale public events, such as manpower deployment, contingency plans and crowd control. Police Community Relations Officer Dorothy Nieh also introduced the major duties of her officers during a public event. 

 

WCHDIV Patrol Sub-unit Commander (PSUC) 3, Inspector Leung Tsz-ki, said the most impressive part was the segregated two-flow crowd control on the Percival Street footbridge. A demonstration on February 1 gave him an opportunity to put theories into practice, by utilising the knowledge learned from the workshop to deploy manpower to both ends of the footbridge to ensure an orderly flow of pedestrians.

 

WCHDIV PSUC 2, Inspector Lam Chung-nga, said from the sharing of views in the workshop, she realised the importance of engaging the organiser, government department representatives and the premises' managing office prior to an event.

 

WCHDIST's development programme has enhanced the confidence and ability of junior inspectors to handle large-scale public events. Assistant Divisional Commander (Operations) Yu Siu-chuen will regularly review their progress and the format of the workshop for the future.