A number of officers paid study visits and attended training programmes overseas and on the Mainland recently, underscoring the Force's long-standing policy of providing opportunities for officers to develop their potential and gain international exposure.

Shanghai

Senior Superintendent (Administration) of Traffic Branch Headquarters (TBHQ) Yuen Chi-kin led three officers from TBHQ and eight officers from the Regional Traffic Formations to visit the Traffic Police Headquarters of Shanghai Public Security Bureau (PSB) from March 29 to 31. This was the first time for TBHQ to co-ordinate an exchange between frontline traffic officers and their Mainland counterparts.

After the delegates attended a seminar with the Traffic Police Headquarters of Shanghai PSB on traffic management strategies, they visited the Traffic Sub-unit of Huangpu Sub-bureau and the Shanghai PSB Command Centre to exchange their views on traffic enforcement structure, management strategy, road safety publicity, drink driving, drug driving and speeding in Hong Kong and the Mainland. The exchange was fruitful and had laid a sound foundation for partnership between the two sides.

Spain

A Force delegation, led by Superintendent (SP) Lam Chun-kit and comprising four Chief Inspectors (CIPs) and five Senior Inspectors (SIPs), paid a study visit to the Spanish National Police (SNP) in Madrid between March 13 and 17 with the arrangements made by the Hong Kong Police College (HKPC).

The delegation started their programme with a guided tour to the Training and Development Division of SNP and the National Police Academy of Spain to get an idea about their recruit training policies as well as the campus facilities of and the university programmes offered by the Academy.

The delegates also visited the Madrid International Airport, the Central Border Unit and the International Cooperation Division to learn about their border control policies and their strategies against human trafficking. They exchanged experience with SNP officers on the challenges of handling illegal immigrants, asylum seekers and human trafficking.

The overseas visit gave a fruitful insight to the delegates on a different mode of policing, which broadened their international horizons and benefitted their professional development.

Australia

CIPs Yeung Chun-yee and Kwok Hiu-kwan attended a Graduate Certificate of Applied Management Programme at the Australian Institute of Police Management (AIPM) in Sydney and an attachment in Perth between February 20 and March 19 under the arrangement of the HKPC.

The three-week programme covered a range of topics, such as adaptive leadership, strategic environmental analysis, diversity and change management. It provided an opportunity for 31 participants from police agencies and emergency services in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Hong Kong to share policing practices.

Various International Visiting Fellows, including SP Ho Siu-kai who has been seconded from the Hong Kong Police Force to AIPM since last September, contributed to the programme by inspiring the participants' thinking and assessing their performance through classroom exercises, group discussion and written assignments.

After the AIPM programme, the two CIPs spent one week on attachment to the Western Australia Police in Perth where they visited the Police Academy, Legal Services Unit and Licensing Enforcement Division. They were deeply impressed by the professionalism of their counterparts.

On the other hand, the HKPC made arrangement for CIP Wong Yick-lung to attend a training course on the Management of Serious Crime, which was organised by the Australian Federal Police in Canberra from March 19 to April 7.

The course brought together two overseas police officers and 15 law enforcement officers in Australia to study the challenges of terrorism, technology crime, human trafficking, drug trafficking and money laundering.

Apart from lectures and group discussion, the trainees took part in a three-day outdoor exercise and visited the Parliament House in Canberra. The course went into depth on topics such as media management, police leadership and international co-operation. The trainees shared the best practices with their counterparts in a hope to build a sustainable and solid partnership.

Denmark

Under the arrangement of the HKPC, a Force delegation of 14 members, led by CIP Man Yu-ching, visited the Danish National Police (DNP) from February 27 to March 3 to study their policy on engaging sexual minority groups.

The DNP officers briefed the delegates about their legislation and experience in engaging sexual minorities, noting that they would deploy "dialogue officers" in some large-scale public events involving sexual minority groups to liaise with the organisers in advance so that the events could be run more smoothly. Meanwhile, the National Center of Prevention of the DNP gave an account of hate crimes against the sexual minorities in Denmark as well as the ways in tackling the matter. The delegates also attended talks delivered by a number of non-governmental organisations, including the Amnesty International, the Institute for Human Rights and the Copenhagen Pride, about the rights and culture of sexual minority groups in Denmark.

Furthermore, the delegation had a chance to conduct a dialogue with some members of the sexual minority groups to understand their concern as well as their expectations of police officers.

Singapore

The HKPC arranged two CIPs and an SIP to visit the Traffic Police Headquarters of the Singapore Police Force (SPF) from March 13 to 17 in a bid to learn more about their traffic enforcement strategies.

CIPs Hong Yuen-kwan and Chow Shun-wai and SIP Chan Wing-fai started the visit with a study tour to the Police Headquarters to get to know the history and organisational structure of the SPF. Afterwards, they called on the Traffic Police Headquarters at which they were briefed on their new technologies for daily traffic enforcement as well as traffic operations in large-scale sports events.

The SPF has integrated traffic policing with electronic devices to interdict on-the-road targets involved in traffic offences. They explained to the Force delegates about the application of the field video capturing method and electronic ticketing to assist in the prosecution of traffic offenders on roads. The delegates also met representatives from the Road Safety Unit to exchange views on road safety publicity initiatives.