"94 per cent of the respondents agreed with the Force's vision that 'Hong Kong remains one of the safest and most stable societies in the world'.

"And a good number of respondents - 76 per cent - pledged to put in extra effort to help the Force achieve its vision. 72 per cent were proud of telling others of their working in the Force," Mr Ma noted.

"More encouraging is that the majority of the respondents continue to see eye to eye with the Force on every aspect of its values," Mr Ma pointed out.

"In particular, an overwhelming 99 per cent pledged to take a stand against corruption. Those who pledged to be prudent in their private lives so as to avoid conflicts of interest with their official duties, account for an equally impressive 95 per cent," he noted.

As regards the respondents' overall evaluation of the Force, he said three quarters held the view that the Force's overall performance is good.

Mr Ma then turned to the survey topics of "Policing" and "Working in the Force".

In the respondents' evaluation of the Force's performance, he said, improvements had been recorded in all seven key policing areas, namely, Maintaining Law and Order, Preventing Crimes, Handling Emergencies, Building Partnership with Community, Reducing Traffic Accidents, and Reducing Traffic Congestion.

"More worthy of note are the 93 per cent satisfaction level for Maintaining Law and Order and 84 per cent for Preventing Crimes," he added.

Turning to the respondents' evaluation of the key attributes relating to the Force's working environment, Mr Ma reported that significant improvement had been noted in respect of Force morale in that 37 per cent were satisfied compared with 25 per cent not satisfied. Evaluation of internal communication had also improved to 48 per cent, with 14 per cent being dissatisfied.

Despite the improvements relating to the respondents' perception of the management of change in the Force, more respondents held the view that the changes have been too many and too fast. With regard to the Force promotion system, 36 per cent of the respondents were satisfied, against a 26 per cent "not satisfied", which shows that this is still an issue requiring attention.

"On the whole, the findings of the 2007/08 survey did not show any significant difference from those of the 2004 survey. The management is taking a close look at the findings and will address the concerns identified in the survey," Mr Ma concluded.

Meanwhile, Mr Ma disclosed that in a bid to continue evaluating public satisfaction of the Force and to get a good grip of public aspirations, the Force would commission the Hong Kong University's Public Opinion Programme (HKU POP) to conduct two surveys in the fourth quarter of this year - "Customer Satisfaction Survey" and "Public Opinion Survey".

Carried out every three years in accordance with the Force's Survey Strategy, these two surveys were last conducted in 2005.

"The findings of the 2005 surveys showed that as high as 78 per cent of those who had contacts with the police were satisfied with the Force, and 85 per cent of the respondents had confidence in the Force. This underscores the fact that a wide cross-section of the community recognises the efforts the Force has made over the years and the professional services it has provided.

"We'll not rest on our laurels, and will continue conducting the two surveys later this year in order to find out where we can further improve our services," said Mr Ma.

Mr Ma took the opportunity to point out that the surveys conducted by the HKU POP on its own initiatives in the past four years, revealed that public satisfaction with the Force's performance remained consistently at not less than 70 per cent.

"This is because we are true to our motto 'We Serve With Pride and Care' in providing quality services to the public. We'll do our very best to live up to their expectations as they deserve nothing less," he added.

Assistant Commissioner (Service Quality) Ma Wai-luk says the management will address staff concerns identified in the staff opinion survey