Under the same scheme, two other police constables, Lai Kam-tim and Fong Kwok-hong, have gained the Great Application of Information Technology Award and Progressive Improvement Award respectively.

Moreover, 10 other police constables, who were runners-up to PC Szeto as nominees for the scheme, have obtained a Silver Award.

All the 13 officers recently received their awards from their Divisional Commander Chow Oi-wang.

Mr Chow told OffBeat that the senior management and NCOs mooted the ideas of the scheme during an Internal Communication Forum.

He explained: "The ideas behind the scheme were to boost staff morale, recognise the good work of frontline officers and give them encouragement and incentive for further improvement in their jobs, so that ultimately service quality would be raised for the benefit of the community. Another aim of the scheme is to promote the Force value in 'Striking for excellence' and the Living-the-Values theme of 'A Caring Work Force'."

With Mr Chow's endorsement and support, a 12-member organising committee, headed by IP Rayson Chan and comprising inspectors, NCOs and PCs as members, was formed to work out the logistics of the scheme, which is officially known as Best UB/DVIT Constable Selection Scheme.

The scheme was rolled out after each of the 11 sub-units in the uniform and crime streams had submitted a nomination supported by the sub-unit commander.

Selection criteria

The job of selecting the award winners then fell on a selection committee comprising Assistant Divisional Commander (Operations), Ms Mak Siu-fong as chairperson and two members of the organising committee. They made their selection in accordance with the nominees' core competency, functional competency, self-improvement, healthy living style and continuous and outstanding performance.

"The performance of each of the nominees was so good that we had a difficult job in picking the winners. The selection committee's decision on the awards was unanimous!" Miss Mak told OffBeat.

According to the citation of his Gold Award, PC Szeto "has contributed to champion service quality in Kwai Chung Division with outstanding performance in 2005".

On behalf of all the award winners, PC Szeto, who works in the Patrol Sub-unit 1, thanked the management for running the contest scheme, and for the support and encouragement given by their Divisional Commander, other senior officers and colleagues.

"The scheme is a very good initiative and a very meaningful exercise on the part of the management. Indeed, the Gold Award is a great encouragement for me, but more important is the fact that the scheme makes frontline officers realise that the management do care about them and recognise the efforts they have put in," said PC Szeto.

PC Lai won his Great Application of Information Technology Award by diligently applying his knowledge in Information Technology in supporting the NTS Regional HQ, Tsuen Wan and Kwai Tsing Districts to champion service quality in 2005.

Miss Mak described PC Lai as "a computer expert in the division". "Everybody in the division would think of him and turn to him for help when it comes to IT!" she noted.

PC Lai, from MESU, constantly brushes up his IT knowledge and applies it at work. Besides being forthcoming in helping his colleagues with their IT problems, he has used his IT knowledge to analyse crime reports, establish the crime trends and put the relevant information in a database which is available to every officer in the division.

Last year, PC Lai even helped design and produce NTS' website on the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference (HKMC).

The citation of PC Fong Kwok-hong's Progressive Improvement Award reads: "Has shown remarkable improvement on overall duty performance in 2005 and demonstrated a high degree of devotion to duty and initiative during the HKMC period in rendering support to fellow officers".

PC Szeto Koon-wing (first left), PC Lai Kam-tim (first right) and PC Fong Kwok-hong (second right) receive their award certificates from their Divisional Commander Chow Oi-wang (third left). Also present at the presentation are Assistant Divisional Commander Mak Siu-fong (second left) and Inspector Rayson Chan (third right)