The 10-member team's latest success - arresting a burglary and recovering 41 articles stolen from an industrial building on May 13 - has won the compliments of the building's Incorporation of Owners.

The team, led by Senior Inspector Danny Tang Kwok-wah, was formed in October last year to tackle burglaries within the Kwun Tong Factory Area. As a result of its continuous efforts, the number of burglaries committed within the factory area in the first quarter of 2004 has dropped to 22 cases from 40 in the same period last year. This has earned for the team three commendations from Kowloon East Regional Commander and five commendations from Kwun Tong District Commander.

The team began its task by conducting a full "risk assessment" of all the 218 industrial buildings within the factory area by grouping them into three categories in accordance with their degrees of susceptibility to burglary. After this, it maintained close liaison with the management and security companies of the "high risk" buildings, and advised them on how to improve their security measures.

At the same time, the team worked hard to gather and analyse intelligence, and placed emphasis on the images of suspects obtained from the buildings' CCTV systems.

Covert operations mounted by the team over the last six months eventually paid off when it arrested four burglars, including "lunchtime burglars" who have been active in Kowloon East for over three years.

The team's other success included the arrest of five more culprits, including two Venezuela males who were members of a gang of seven South Americans involved in thefts from the Jewellery and Watch Exhibition in Wan Chai in March.

Kwun Tong Division officers have been commended for fighting burglary cases in factory area