Off Beat

Operation Breakthrough

"The project taught me how to get along with other people. I ended
up liking the police officers involved," said an 18-year-old
on probation order.
"The officers who got involved with us made us realise what
discipline is, how it can help us in our everyday lives - and that
obeying orders is necessary for the benefit of all"

"If at first we couldn't accomplish a task, the police officers involved encouraged us to have faith in
ourselves, and to get up and try again. I think the boys also enjoyed the evenings when we got to
know the officers better and they told us about their lives as police," commented a 16-year-old
participant involved in the Superintendent's Discretion Scheme

NINETEEN juvenile delinquents from Tuen Mun took part in a three-day camp at the former Police Adventurer Training Unit (PATU) in Tai Mei Tuk where under guidance from police and social workers they participated in challenging activities aimed at giving them a more positive outlook on life and a better sense of self-esteem.
Most of these boys are from broken homes, do poorly at school, have committed crimes and possess bad attitudes especially towards authority figures like parents, school teachers and police.
"Operation Breakthrough is a pilot project in which young offenders are encouraged to face tough physical training and challenges," said Tuen Mun ADVC OPS, Chief Inspector Daniel Lawley, the main organiser of the weekend outing held from July 31 to August 2 at the campsite in Tai Po.
"We brought them to the camp to make them realise that they could achieve something to be proud of and that they are not bound to be 'failures'," he said. "Another major aim of the project is to make them realise that the police are out there to help them."
A total of 30 officers, 24 of them from Police Tactical Unit Headquarters and six from PATU, volunteered their time to lead and participate with the boys in physical training exercises and a wide variety of demanding and confidence building activities that included mountain hiking at night, boxing, jumping from heights and abseiling.
The boys were particularly impressed by an afternoon spent looking around Police Tactical Unit Headquarters in Fan Ling, where they experienced a sampling of the training regimen PTU officers must undergo such as steep-wall climbing and the rope course.
Participating officers felt equally rewarded and personally enriched by the Operation Breakthrough experience. All felt they'd been involved in something worthwhile, and had the chance to make a positive difference in the lives of the boys.

Do's and don'ts for PEN users

PEN's pal. P L Wong

SINCE its installation in April 1996, the Police E-mail Network (PEN) has seen its users increase from 200 to around 1,600. General Registries (GRs) in all Force formations as well as officers with PICS, FICS and RICS systems are now connected to PEN. (Officers with the TOMS system will be connected to PEN later this year).

Every day nearly 50,000 messages go out over PEN with a click of a mouse.

Taking into account the large number of users and its potential growth, the Information Technology Branch has implemented a series of measures to ensure that the system is used with the highest possible efficiency.

From 10 August onwards, all administrative messages such as those concerning welfare, job vacancies, quartering and promotion are now sent through PEN directly to GRs of all formations for appropriate circulation.

"This will leave terminals in Report Rooms and EU Duty Rooms free to receive operational related messages like crime messages, missing person reports, morning sitreps, etc.," said Mr Wong who reminded users to employ the "ALL GR" group address code for administrative PEN messages and the "ALL Report/Duty Room" code for operational messages. "If a message is intended for both groups, the two codes should be used together," he added.

"Also, officers should be more prudent with their use of the system. They should send their message direct to its designated receivers rather than sending it out indiscriminately or repeatedly to make sure that it gets through. Messages shouldn't just be 'dumped' on those who are not supposed to receive it because they take up a lot of memory in the central processor and end up delaying other messages from reaching their destinations."

Plans are also afoot to introduce new groups of address codes such as "ALL RCs", "ALL DCs", "ALL DVCs", etc., to facilitate senders quickly getting their messages to the intended receivers.

Mr Wong also reminds PEN users to check their mail box regularly and delete old messages in order to free needed memory space in the system's hard drive. Officers who do not check their mail box regularly not only waste valuable memory, but also risk missing important and time-sensitive information.

Said contract project manager, Ricky Chow: "We're thinking of introducing an auto-clearing function which would wipe off old (and unread messages) after a certain period of time."

In addition, SP SUP COMMS, Wong Chi-hang reminds users of PEN that it was meant as communication tool on matters related to officers' work and that consequently it should not be used for personal correspondence unrelated to Force matters.

Because of the success of the PEN system and its nature as an essential, effective and fast means of internal communication, the IT Training Centre will be organising regular classes in the use of PEN for officers nominated by their commanders in all regions, who will then be responsible for disseminating what they're learned to colleagues in their respective formations.

Any one having queries or suggestions concerning the PEN system should contact P L Wong at 2860-2282.