The community plays a vital role in maintaining the security and safety of Hong Kong. The Government has a responsibility for promoting awareness of this role in the community, and facilitating the building up of a partnership between the community and the law enforcement agencies upon a foundation of trust and common goals.

Partnership relies on the community trusting the law enforcement agencies to be honest, fair and impartial in all their dealings. Our efforts to improve customer service and to ensure an effective response to complaints against members of these agencies make an important contribution. For example, the Police have embarked on a major programme called "Living-the-Values Workshops" to emphasise, among other things, the importance of service to the community. They also conduct periodic customer satisfaction surveys and public opinion surveys to collate public views on their performance and make improvements accordingly.

We will continue our efforts in strengthening public confidence in the Force by fostering a service culture through service quality projects (including providing better facilities and streamlining procedures in report rooms and in other areas of contact with the public), by formulating and publicising the Force's clearly-defined strategic directions, and by developing and implementing a Force Anti-Corruption Strategy (including the promulgation of Force values, promotion of integrity and honesty, encouraging healthy lifestyles and maintaining close liaison with the ICAC).

'The maintenance of Hong Kong as a relatively crime-free city is essential for the social and economic well being of our society - this is enshrined in the Police Vision to ensure we remain one of the safest societies in the world'

The maintenance of Hong Kong as a relatively crime free city is essential for the social and economic well being of our society. This requirement is enshrined in the Vision of the Hong Kong Police, which is to ensure we remain one of the safest and most stable societies in the world. To maintain law and order in Hong Kong, the Government will continue to strengthen the ability of the Force to prevent and detect crime. Additional officers will be deployed to perform frontline operational duties to meet the increasing demand for police services arising from rapid development. The feasibility of applying advanced computer technology to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of daily police work will also be explored on a continual basis. In addition, Police will continue to adopt a two-pronged strategy against crime:

To reinforce the Force's capability to tackle increasingly sophisticated international syndicated and organised crimes, such as money laundering, commercial fraud or counterfeiting of monetary instruments, we will increase our co-operation and liaison with other jurisdictions through Interpol and other channels. We will also expand the network of co-operation with key countries by negotiating and concluding more bilateral agreements on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters and surrender of fugitive offenders.

The general law and order situation remained stable in 1999. The overall crime rate and the violent crime rate were 1,122 and 230 per 100,000 people respectively. Although the figures showed a modest increase compared with 1998, they are the third lowest in the past 26 years. Our overall crime rate is lower than that of many other metropolitan cities in the world such as London, Tokyo and Toronto.

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