Such close partnership is paying dividends as there is a continuous decline in the incidence of burglary in the division. A reduction of about 15 per cent in the number of burglary cases was recorded in the first quarter of this year.

Assistant Divisional Commander Operations, Mr Stephen Chalkley, in an interview with OffBeat, said: "Burglary has been a major interest of Yau Tsim District, since there is a large number of residential and commercial buildings in the district.

"To tackle the problem, we need the assistance from the security companies and their staff. In fact, they are always in the front line with us in the fight against crime.

"In addition to the routine contacts between our frontline officers and the security personnel, our division, under the leadership of Divisional Commander, Mr Wong Wai-fung, has been organising a half-yearly seminar for them and the owners' association representatives to further arouse their awareness of building security," Mr Chalkley said.

Three seminars have been held since last year and many security personnel found the seminars very informative and useful.

Mr Albert Yeung and Mr Alan Mak, both representatives of a property management company, said that the seminars allowed them to have a clearer picture of the crime situation in YMT and the latest modus operandi adopted by the culprits.

"After attending the seminars, we know what assistance we can offer to the Police in our daily work. For example, we can inform the Police of the special maintenance works to be conducted in our buildings so that they can make necessary manpower deployment beforehand," Mr Yeung elaborated.

Another property management company representative, Mr Thomas Lee, said that he was particularly interested in the case study sessions and the display of various anti-burglary devices.

Mr Lee said: "We will pass the knowledge to other colleagues who are unable to attend the seminars. We are expecting more such seminars to be organised in the future."

Mr Edward Lee, another property management company representative appreciated YMT Division's effort in enhancing co-operation between the public and the Police. He believed that the drop in the number of burglary cases in the district was partly attributable to the close co-operation between the community and the Police.

ADVC Crime, Mr Vincent Cheng, told OffBeat that apart from orgainising seminars, they also distributed leaflets and sent letters to security personnel and owners' associations. The move not only reminded them the importance of crime prevention measures, but also updated them on the latest incidence of burglary.

"Our multi-agency approach has been proven effective and we are now studying the possibility of further developing the building security seminar," Mr Cheng concluded.

ADVC Vincent Cheng (middle) with representatives of property management companies