Although the number of illegal activities being undertaken under the banner of the demonstrations has dropped recently, some "Shop with you" protests are still being organised, at which black-clad groups vandalise shops in malls. In response to this, the police have dispatched plainclothes officers to conduct high profile patrols and the results have been impressive and immediate.

"Noting that there were protests going on in Harbour City shopping mall on December 21, we launched a high profile patrol operation to check suspicious individuals and arrest anyone who was seen vandalising property. I must emphasise that we were not conducting an anti-riot operation. Our aim was to prevent and stop instances of crime," Assistant District Commander (Crime) of Yau Tsim District Tsang Chung-bun said.

Mr Tsang said this was the first time that this type of operation had been carried out, and that the results had been positive, with demonstrators with malicious intentions being caught by surprise. By leading the operation in person, he wanted to tell frontline officers that their hearts are together and so are their actions. However, similar protests on December 24 saw the protesters better prepared, having mobilised more people, and this resulted in physical confrontations with the police in which plainclothes officers were attacked and injured.

"The police need to constantly assess the nature of demonstration activities and the site environment to adjust and fine-tune operational tactics. After evaluating the second shopping mall patrol operation, it was decided that in future operations all officers would wear protective gear and that additional manpower would be deployed," Mr Tsang continued. "In the next three protests of a similar nature, there were no physical confrontations and no police officers were injured."

Some people feel uneasy and even a little sacred at the idea of masked plainclothes officers patrolling shopping malls. "Only those with improper intentions should be frightened!" Mr Tsang said. "Our plainclothes officers will patrol only along the side of walkways when there are no incidents and will not disturb shop operations. Reporters have total press freedom as long as they do not come too near plainclothes officers. As for protesters, if they are just shouting slogans or holding placards, plainclothes officers will not intervene."