DRC NTN Charles Wong opens the forum

Missing youths are being found faster under Operation Reunion, a new initiative by the New Territories North Regional Missing Persons Unit.
The scheme started July 1, seeing NTN officers and social services agencies sharing their skills and contacts to locate the youths and keep them out of trouble.

A briefing and forum on the scheme was held November 29 with Deputy NTN Regional Commander Charles Wong Doon-yee making the opening speech. NTN Superintendent (Operations) Rod Colson and other officers, along with staff of the welfare agencies, which have joined the scheme, were also in attendance. Report Room officers explain the scheme to every parent who reports their children missing. Information they gather on the youth is referred to the agencies, with parental consent, and a search is conducted, offering immediate help and counselling once the youth is found.

Mr Wong said the scheme was enhancing relations between the Force, the Social Welfare Department and the agencies.

"Previously, Police would hand the missing youths back to their parents once they were located. A Care or Protection Order would then be applied for, if necessary, so social workers could follow up the case. But now, we have immediate assistance offered by them instead," Mr Wong said.

NTN RMPU Woman Senior Inspector Jessica Fung Yau-ho said: "We found that youths under 16 made up about 48 per cent of our missing population, a figure slightly higher than that of Hong Kong overall. We came up with the scheme because we found that the longer the youths were missing, the greater the dangers and their temptation for committing crime. Also the benefits of dealing with the problems that cause the youth to leave home include reducing repeat runaways. The response has since been very encouraging and more than 18 welfare agencies have joined.

"If the youths want to keep their whereabouts secret and ask social workers not to tell us, we will respect their choice because we understand social workers' practice codes - keeping the cases confidential and allowing their clients to make their own decisions."

RMPU Woman Police Constable Chan Ka-yee said: "The closer co-operation between us and social workers definitely helps cut the time needed to locate missing youths because their whereabouts is often known by their peer groups. So this two-way approach helps keep youths away from crime and danger."

Cheng Chung-man of agency the Friends of Scouting, added: "Police information also allows us to identify more youths who need our assistance."

Police would maintain contact with the agencies to assess the scheme's progress and consider any improvements.

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