Feedback from reader on OffBeat Dear Sir, I am pleased to see the front-page coverage given to the Hong Kong Police Review 98 in your May 19 to June 1 issue. Personally I feel that this is a very comprehensive publication presented in a readable manner and is a very useful information tool for our own Force members. However I was disappointed to note that although you said that the Review is now available you gave no details of how or where. My previous experience of the Review is that one copy is available for circulation amongst inspectorate officers and above (others may have been allocated to individual senior officers?). Thus after several weeks one may be lucky enough to see it. I would imagine that the situation is much worse for Jonior Police Officers. It would be interesting to see information on the number of copies printed and a breakdown of their distribution or intended distribution. If each member of the Force cannot have a copy, I think OffBeat should advise on where copies can be viewed or obtained, especially as many JPOs are preparing for promotion boards and the Review could give them a broad picture of the Force structure, hierarchy, achievements and the way forward. I also was pleased to see the good photographic coverage of senior officers in the Review. JPOs are not familiar with many of the senior officers outside their own Regions and these photographs are a positive step. OffBeat as a twice-monthly publication is in a perfect position to continue this positive trend. Would it be possible, where District Commanders and above change post, that their photographs and new posting appear in OffBeat? For your consideration. Keep up the good work. A CIP Response from OffBeat Editor THANK you for your letter and comments. The print run for the bilingual Police Review 98 is 6,000. Each year copies are sent to all government departments, members of the Executive, Legislative, Provisional Urban and Regional Councils, overseas enforcement agencies, our counterparts in the Mainland, related organisations such as the Independent Police Complaints Council, Fight Crime Committee, District Fight Crime Committees and so on. Internally, officers of Superintendent and above receive one copy each while an adequate number of copies are sent to formations for circulation. In addition, with the imminent roll-out of the Customer Services Improvement Project, 30 copies are available as reference material from each of the resource centres of North Point, Sha Tin and Sau Mau Ping Police Stations. Apart from the Force Library, copies are also available at libraries of the Provisional Urban Council and the Provisional Regional Council. You may wish to know that the latest edition of the Police Review will soon be uploaded on the Internet. On your photo suggestions, your ideas will be considered as part of our up-coming revamp of OffBeat. Your feedback is most valuable. Thank you. OffBeat Editor

Thanks to Police (The following letter was sent to the Kwai Tsing District Crime Squad) Dear Sir, I would like to express my gratitude to Detective Service Inspectors Chan Shiu-keung and Chan Kam-ying as well as Detective Police Constables Yu Hon-keung, Leung Shing-yip and Wong Wai-king of the Kwai Tsing District Crime Squad 1 for arresting a gang of men who held my son hostage and blackmailed us at the beginning of the year. My sincere thanks also go to all police officers who were involved in this case. Yours faithfully, Ms Ng (Editor's note: The case concerned occurred in late November last year when the victim, after losing his bet in a Macau casino, was approached by a man saying he could help get the money back by placing bets on his behalf. However, the man soon informed the victim he lost heavily and the victim owed him the money. The victim was brought back to Hong Kong and detained in a hotel where he was ordered to phone his family for the money. The victim's family made a report to the Police immediately and the officers arrested three men after a detailed investigation.)