At a recent press conference, Director of Operations Dick Lee Ming-kwai stressed the Force was confident it was Y2K ready and significant problems would not occur.

However, as a precautionary measure, he said the Force had undergone careful contingency planning and derived a set of measures to ensure law and order was maintained during the festive period should any Y2K glitches arise.

They included measures to ensure adequate communications and provisions of electricity, fuel and manpower.

Mr Lee said alternative lines of communication had been created to ensure calls for help could be dealt with quickly and effectively.

"These include a fallback direct line telephone system between the Force's control centres which will be activated should the main system be affected, and point-to-point radios which can be utilised at ground level without having to be relayed through a repeater or control centre," Mr Lee said.

"Additional manpower will also be maximised on the street to enable reports to be made directly to officers on patrol."

Mr Lee said the establishment of direct liaison channels with the Fire Services Department would also ensure the Force's emergency response, while FSD officers would be stationed in Police Regional Command and Control Centres.

"Emergency generators are in all police stations and control centres to allow for continued power supply in the event of a mains failure, and all fuel pumps will be fully supplied and economically managed to allow continued arrangement to dispatch emergency vehicles to deal with cases of need," he said

"On the Y2K-sensitive dates, the task forces will be on duty round the clock to make sure any problems with the mission-critical systems receive immediate attention."

"All existing Police contingency plans for a multitude of various scenarios are being reviewed and modified to allow utilisation of the contingencies in an environment of a Y2K-related information technology failure. Traffic duties will be maximised on the ground to facilitate traffic flow in the event of a traffic signalling failure. A central monitoring unit from Police Headquarters will liaise with the Special Administrative Region Government to ensure supporting services from other government departments can be easily co-ordinated with the Police Force.

"And Police operational manpower will be maximised from December 31, 1999 to January 3, 2000 to ensure an effective service to the public," Mr Lee said.

The Force also completed rectification work on all its information technology systems ensuring Y2K compliance.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (Information Systems) Peter Halliday said they included 76 computer systems, 291 embedded systems and 79 line communication systems.

Of these, eight computer systems, 290 embedded systems and 75 line communications systems were classified as "mission critical".

"Individual contingency plans for each of these mission-critical systems, as well as a master Y2K contingency plan, are being prepared and are expected to be finalised in mid-August," Mr Halliday said.

Two special technical task forces would be formed to provide immediate response to Y2K-related problems and make special arrangements in emergency cases. They will also maintain the normal operation of the mission-critical systems within the Force.

"One of the main duties of the task force is to inform Police internal users and the public on the extent of Y2K-related failures reported and the estimated recovery times. Another is to prevent a snowballing effect if any major Y2K-related problem occurs," Mr Halliday said.

He added the task forces would arrange an early warning to the public should any Y2K problem look to be spreading outside the Force.

"The task forces will properly escalate Y2K-related problems to the designated party if a mission-critical system within the Force is affected.

"On the Y2K-sensitive dates, the task forces will be on duty round the clock to make sure any problems with the mission-critical systems receive immediate attention."

Further information can be downloaded from the Year 2000 Project website at:

http://www.info.gov.hk/police/english/y2k/index.htm.





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