No-nonsense Emergency Unit KW car crew corners bank
robbers in a dark Sham Shui Po park

THE SCENARIO is an armed robbery in progress. Two culprits run into a bank on Tai Nan West Street and rob $1 million before fleeing. One male has a firearm and the other carries a bag and is armed with a knife. The bank security guard attempts to intercept the robbers. The firearm is pointed at him but appears to jam. The culprits run down into the nearby Lai Chi Kok MTR and across to Tai Nan West Street bus terminal where they hijack a car with a passenger and speed away. The car is reported abandoned on a street opposite a park in Sham Shui Po.

¡@Just another shift for the Emergency Unit car crews of Kowloon West - the smallest region in the HKSAR but (due to its ultra high density of people, both residents and transients, traffic congestion, high-risk premises such as banks, gold and jewellery shops and entertainment spots), the region with the highest crime figures.

¡@The EU KW provides a 24-hour service to all four districts and all of the divisions in the region and maintains its operational base in the Mongkok police station. Every shift EU puts out 12 vehicles (each with a five-officer crew) within the divisional boundaries, the idea being that the car has to be able to handle any emergency call within its beat area - from an elderly lady falling down the stairs to a barroom brawl or a triad-related turf war, to an armed robbery. Because the vans are mobile, they can carry specialised firearms, body armour, first aid equipment, dogs and, despite the congested streets, pride themselves on an average four-minute response time. In addition, the Emergency Unit has a PTU capability whereby shifts can be called back and turned out to form a second line behind the Regional Police Tactical Unit if need be.

¡@Because of the highly pressurised nature of the region, a lot of innovations and initiatives in policing with respect to EUs throughout the Force have come from Kowloon West. A case in point being the above mentioned scenario dubbed Exercise ZEBRATAIL which comes on the last day of a one-week induction course given by Kowloon West Emergency Unit Headquarters for their personnel as well as officers from the Police Tactical Unit and EUs in other regions.

¡@Because in Kowloon West anything can happen, the intensive training course includes everything from setting up road blocks and closing down main arteries, to breaking down doors to gain entrance into suspected premises, to handling bomb threats, open fires, armed robberies and hostage situations.

¡@"The Emergency Unit is probably the pinnacle of a Uniform Branch officer's career in terms of action and responsibility," says Rod Mason, SP EU KW. "Which is why the induction course is so important. The final exercise is the closest our EU officers will come to the 'real thing' and as such helps immeasurably in preparing them for a real emergency. It's a chance for them to put into practical use - and to improve upon - the skills they have been highly trained to perform. Tonight's exercise ZEBRATAIL is not an exam to pass or fail. Rather it's a self-test, an opportunity for the officers to hone their skills while performing them in the safest and most professional manner possible."

¡@Indeed, the officers involved in ZEBRATAIL have no idea what the scenario will be. They've just been told to go out and patrol - although they do know it's only an exercise. Headquarters' staff led by Superintendent Mason will then call in the "armed robbery in progress", to which all Emergency Unit car crews taking part will have to respond as if it's the real thing - complete with (unloaded) weaponry, bullet proof body armour, dogs and police actors playing the bad guys, crime scene civilians and hostages.

¡@When the emergency call does go out, SP Mason and his team of observers are already at the "scene of the crime" - a bank on Tai Nan West Street in Sham Shui Po. Before long, the first EU vehicles arrive on the scene and officers in bullet-proof vests with weapons at the ready make their approach.

¡@"First arrival at a bank robbery is crucial," says SP Mason. "So we are concerned that these officers make an appropriate approach. Are they taking into account the elements of danger? They should be thinking of all the alternatives. We don't want to see them just walking right in front of the premises, we want to see a proper approach. At the same time, roadblocks should be considered. People dial 999 after an incident has occurred, so while police are converging on the scene, the criminals are fleeing."

¡@The next step in the exercise is a proper debriefing of the bank "security guard". The observers pay special attention to the questions their officers ask. Woman police constable Lo Wai-Sheung is asking the right questions. Under the circumstances it is less important to know exactly how tall the robbers were than what they are wearing - and what they are carrying. A bank robber is more likely to discard a jacket than the bag containing the stolen money.

¡@When the officers are told that the culprits fled into the nearby MTR the teams respond appropriately but realise that precious time has elapsed. Based on an actual robbery, the scenario shifts into another phase of the operation when word comes across the radio that the suspected bank robbers have hijacked a car and taken a hostage. All know that statistically a stolen or getaway vehicle is dumped within four minutes of the crime being committed, so it is essential that a description of the vehicle be passed on to all units and roadblocks be re-adjusted.

¡@When the stolen car is found abandoned outside a park in Sham Shui Po, Emergency Unit vehicles converge on the scene, secure the release of the hostage and using police dogs find and arrest the bank robbers who are hiding in the park.

¡@When the exercise ends, the EU car crews are debriefed by SP Mason, CIP Denko Au Yeung, SIP Chris Pedder, S/Sgt Li Chung-kin and Sgt Lee Wan-chung who have been in each of the cars monitoring how the teams performed and handled the different situations.

¡@Being professionals, none of the officers taking part are one hundred per cent satisfied by their performance - which is the point of the exercise. Examining their mistakes now and improving upon them will better ensure optimum performance and safety in the future - when the real emergency strikes.

¡@WPC Joanna Lee Wai-chung joined EU KW because it was the first emergency unit to recruit women and she wanted a chance to prove her abilities. Like an increasing number of women applying to join emergency units, WPC Lee was not interested in administrative work and saw EU KW as an "opening to all sorts of policing that wasn't available to WPCs in the past".

¡@"In EU KW," she says, "I am a real police officer. And women in an EU car crew tend to balance things out in terms of providing better service to the public. It is more appropriate for us when it comes to searching women suspects and dealing with calls of domestic fighting - which I believe WPCs settle easier."

¡@WPC Lo has been in the Force for six years and joined EU KW four months ago because she prefers operational duty to administrative assignments. She considers what she is doing now as "real police work". Her goal for the near future is "to be promoted to be a sergeant at least - at least"!

¡@"Women officers in EU KW aren't selected to do indoor work - we're right out there facing the serious crimes with our male colleagues. It's a place where I feel I can make a contribution and a difference to the Force. In addition there's firearms (including the MP-5), first aid and command post training."

¡@Echoing her remarks SIP Chris Pedder, EU KW, says: "Three years ago the only thing that prohibited women from coming to EU was that they were not firearms trained. Now many are. I would like to see more WPCs in EU so that we are better capable of dealing with all incidents - especially when it involves female suspects and the all-important de-escalation of confrontation incidents."