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Police embrace TKO kids
 Hanging out: A plain-clothes officer befriends several Tseung Kwan O boys and discusses their troubles |
The potential for juvenile crime development in Tseung Kwan O is being thwarted by a new Police outreach programme to prevent the town becoming the next black spot for youth problems.
The programme, running for just over a year, has seen the containment of youth crime in Tseung Kwan O despite its spiralling population growth. Titled Project Embrace, the campaign uses education, enforcement and a multi-disciplinary approach, along with some outside help from other agencies, to deter juveniles from crime.
Kwun Tong District Police Community Relations Officer, Raymond Siu Chak-yee, said one of the most important aspects of the programme was the high amount of communication between Police and the area's parents and youths. He said the community had been working as hard as Police to cut any growth in youth crime.
"Tseung Kwan O is a new town with a population growing very rapidly and we felt there was potential there for the same youth problems which have occurred in some other new towns. So we felt before the problem came up, we should work to prevent it," Mr Siu said.
He said of Tseung Kwan O's 280,000 residents, about a third were youths and the total population was expected to exceed 500,000 by 2010.
"It has only been about one year since the campaign started but youth crimes have been contained despite the population increase. Only 200 to 300 youths have been arrested annually in the area over the past five years," Mr Siu said, adding the cases were mostly minor such as shoplifting.
 Officers also frequent basketball courts |
"So it has been going quite well, but the credit should not just go to Police because the whole community there has been doing its best to prevent the problem." The campaign includes a Youth Support Team made up of a Sergeant, two Police Constables and two Woman Police Constables, who operate like youth outreach workers and befriend youngsters "hanging out".
"They adopt a friendly approach and ask youths whether they are being bothered by anyone and warn them on the pitfalls of crime. Some youngsters may think police are not friendly and don't want to approach them, so we are trying this friendlier strategy. It also allows the team to gather intelligence on what's happening in the area at the same time," Mr Siu said.
Young offenders from Kwun Tong District visited Sha Tsui Detention Centre on June 11. The 13 youths, including six boys cautioned under the Superintendent's Discretion Scheme, chatted with social workers, Correctional Services Department staff and a detainee of the centre, to deter them from further crime. Mr Siu said the District was organising a similar visit for girls cautioned for offences, to Tai Lam Centre for Women early next year. Other educational measures included school talks and video lectures conducted by frontline officers, the organisation of activities for parents and youngsters, and the encouragement of kids to join the Junior Police Call.
The campaign's enforcement approach included the enhancement of patrols at juvenile crime black spots, frequent checks of areas of drug activity, and encouragement of parents and teachers to report any suspected juvenile crime activity via a paging system manned by officers.
A third approach was to help students likely to quit school and those frequently playing truant.