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The Force Working Group on Community Engagement (FWG) held its eighth half-yearly meeting with the chairpersons of the associations of heads of schools and Federations of Parent-teacher Associations (FPTAs) of 18 Districts at the Police Headquarters on April 16 and 17, and the fourth half-yearly meeting with the school sponsoring bodies at the Police Sports and Recreation Club on April 19. Commissioner Siu Chak-yee and Director of Operations Chan Tung chaired the meetings. Each session was attended by around 20 chairpersons from each of the two associations, representatives from 17 school sponsoring bodies, District Commanders and Police Community Relations Officers, as well as officers from National Security Department, Crime Wing and Public Relations Wing.
In his opening remarks, the Commissioner expressed gratitude to the principals, parents and school sponsoring bodies for their support on the Force’s work. He also appreciated the principals for their valuable feedback and active promotion of the Safe.HK website, as well as the incorporation of website materials into their curricula. The Commissioner emphasised the need to start educating the youth since their young age continuously together, especially there was an upsurge in deception involving the youngsters. He urged all participants to share the Force’s messages proactively and stay in touch with the Districts.
In response to queries about the legislation of Article 23 of the Basic Law, the Commissioner arranged a briefing by Assistant Commissioner (National Security 2) Wong Chung-chun on the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance. He mentioned the points to note for the education sector and gave advice on how to raise awareness on national security among youngsters. The principals looked forward to deepening co-operation with the Police and nurturing young talents with a holistic perspective and righteous values.
Chief Superintendent of Narcotics Bureau Ng Wing-sze pointed out that there was a significant drop in the number of young offenders aged below 21 arrested for drug offences. The accumulative decrease stood at 52.4%. She thanked all youth workers for their collective effort to spread the Force’s anti-drug and anti-crime messages on campus.
The school heads praised Project WeCan, a collaboration between the Force and the Education University of Hong Kong. They supported the Force’s effort in teacher training. Looking ahead, the Force aims to deepen its collaboration with educators and explore the possibility of incorporating this training into the curriculum of the Bachelor’s degree in education, so that exchange with future teachers could be started at an early stage.
The participants also commended the Force’s publicity effort on combatting deception, which enabled them to receive crucial anti-crime information through messaging groups with the Police and help disseminate the information.
Since its establishment in early 2020, FWG has been dedicated to building rapport with young people and enhancing public trust in the Force. FWG also collaborates with youth workers to promote awareness of being law-abiding.
