That's Quality Service!
Regional Intelligence Unit Kowloon East (RIU KE) and Staff Relations Group (SRG) were joint champions of the 2003-04 Service Quality Award in a competition involving entries from a total of 25 formations. Mong Kok District and EPOL became 1st runner-up with the Yuen Long Rural Patrol Unit coming third. A second submission from Kowloon East (KE) on knowledge management, Information Systems Wing's Major Systems Bureau, and Personnel Wing's Personnel Branch each received a Merit Award.
Entrants were judged on a wide range of factors which reflected best practice in the field of service quality. There were some unusual, and highly innovative, entries.
Quality technology beats crime
The joint winning entry from KE showed that service quality has a wide range of practical applications. It was also a reflection of the fact that the prevention and detection of crime through the greater use of information technology is one of the Force's top priorities.
Recognising the value of increasingly high quality CCTV images of suspects wanted for various offences, RIU KE officers initiated their own system for the development, distribution and storage of these images.
The winning advantage was the dramatic reduction in the time needed to get the images before patrolling officers. Since the introduction of the scheme, suspects' faces have begun appearing on notice boards and dedicated "intelligence corners" under the attention grabbing question "Do you recognise these suspects?" And all this is done the same day the image was recorded!
Internal customers also benefit
The other winning entry, from Staff Relations Group, demonstrated that customers are not always members of the public. The SRG submission presented the staggering array of programmes, emphasising the partnership approach with staff associations and formations, introduced by the Group in 2003 alone.
From training packages on personal financial management to family education and study tours, the submission itself is a tribute to the professionalism of the officers who work in the background to ensure that frontline staff are equipped to deal with the pressure of policing and living in a highly stressful city.
Internal customers were also the focus in the EPOL entry which laid out the technological advances brought about by POINT and communication innovations such as e-mail, the online telephone directory and the Force Noticeboard.
Mong Kok scores for efficiency and for the environment
Service Quality is also about increasing efficiency of processes. It used to take the Mong Kok District Property Office more than 50 man-hours per month to dispose of obscene VCDs.
Recognising that, in addition to being a drain on resources, the dumping of discs was also a threat to the environment, Property Office staff and their supervisors Chief Inspector Annie Fonda and Senior Inspector Philip Kwok went to the Environmental Protection Department for assistance. The results were striking.
A private contractor now visits the Station where, under supervision, holes are drilled in the discs to render them unusable. Then, at no cost to Government, the contractor removes the discs for recycling, saving the Force more than $10,000 every month.
Innovation brings zero crime rate
Ex-army officer Gus Scott commands the Rural Patrol Unit of Yuen Long Division. Recognising that the secret to maximising the effectiveness of his limited resources (16 officers covering 70 per cent of the divisional area) lay in an intelligence based approach, Mr Scott drew on his military experience and produced some more dramatic results.
Mr Scott combined thermal imagers, observation posts and ambushes with the innovative creativity of a highly motivated team. Prevalent crimes in the area - burglaries and thefts from constructions sites - became the focus for a series of meticulously planned operations.
The results speak for themselves. From December 2002 to July 2003, Mr Scott and his men received no fewer than 118 compliments for notable arrests. Members of the public were also quick to recognise the quality of service delivered - a construction company which had been plagued by a series of thefts and burglaries presented a plaque to the Task Force to commemorate the reduction of the crime rate to zero. And that, in anyone's book, is quality service.
Service Quality Award 2003-04
Clearly delighted with the professionalism of his officers, Commissioner Mr Tsang Yam-pui, speaking at the presentation of awards at the Police Training School on November 22, said that the importance he attached to the scheme was clear since it had been included as a Key Project in the Strategic Action Plan.
"The Service Quality Award scheme has proved itself to be an excellent vehicle for showcasing the can-do attitude of the Force and I wish to see it become an annual event.
"The extent of the innovation on display was exceptional but what I was struck by most was that the entries were from teams of officers working together with great dedication and esprit de corps."
Also in attendance was Mr David Pao, Acting Head of the Efficiency Unit who had provided services as a judge during the final stage of the competition. He endorsed the Commissioner's assessment.
"As a panel member I was most impressed by the quality, the tremendous commitment and the enthusiasm of the participants for driving efficiency in what is one of the most efficient Governments in the world. The presentation and articulation was particularly impressive," said Mr Pao.
