The Force has again won eight awards in the 2007 Civil Service Outstanding Service Award Scheme - a significant improvement over the four awards in the same scheme last year.

In this year's award scheme, the Force has won three Departmental Level Awards and five Team Level Awards.

At the award scheme's prize presentation ceremony held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on September 13, Acting Deputy Commissioner (Management) Mike Dowie, Assistant Commissioner (Service Quality) Ma Wai-luk, Assistant Commissioner (Information Systems) To Chun-wai, Chief Telecommunications Engineer Wong Chun-kau and Superintendent (SS SQ) Mak Kwai-sing received the Departmental Level Awards on behalf of the Force.

Receiving the Team Level Awards were Kowloon East Deputy Regional Commander Fung Kwok-on, Senior Superintendent (CRM KE) Peter Barnes, Superintendent (A&S CRM NTN) Yuen Yuk-kin, Tuen Mun Division Assistant Divisional Commander Mui Lam-sang and Sergeant Poon To-ming from Tuen Mun District Police Community Relations Office.

Lending support to the Force representatives at the prize presentation ceremony were Commissioner Tang King-shing, New Territories North Regional Commander Cheung Siu-wah and many senior officers.

Officiating at the prize presentation ceremony, the Chief Executive, Mr Donald Tsang, commended the winning departments and teams for their keen sense of perceptiveness, spirit of persistence and courage to challenge established practices.

Congratulating the winners for their achievements that served as role models of outstanding service for the whole civil service, Mr Tsang encouraged civil servants to address public needs through active listening and consultation, and to provide services in a professional, dedicated and responsible manner.

Departmental Level Awards

In this year's award scheme, the Force bid for the Departmental Service Enhancement Award with Information Systems Wing's CC3 project, and submitted seven entries for the Team Level Award.

Subsequently, the CC3 project clinched the Special Citation Award, which serves as recognition of the use of IT by the Force in providing a quality service to the public.

The entry of the CC3 project for the Departmental Service Enhancement Award also earned for the Force a second Departmental Level Award - a Silver Award of the Best Public Image Award Category.

At the same time, the Force's participation, along with 29 government departments, in the "Science in the Public Service" Campaign in 2006/07 also won a third Departmental Level Award - a second runner-up place of the Departmental Partnership Award Category. The Force's displays at an exhibition on MIIDSS, Enhanced Under Vehicle Surveillance System, Police Signage, E-log and anti-crime Online Learning Programme have drawn favourable feedback from visitors to the exhibition.

Team Level Awards

All the seven entries for the Team Level Award, except two, have won awards. Heading the award list is Crime Yuen Long District, which grabbed the champion title of the Internal Service Category with a training project on collection of DNA.

Each of the other four entries has won a Merit Award. The award-winning projects are:

* "Sound of Silence" of the Regional Crime Prevention Office Kowloon East (RCPO KE) in the Specialised Service Category;

* RCPO KE's "Partnership Approach Operation" in the General Public Service Category;

* Crime Prevention project known as "Tuen Mun Police School Network" of the Police Community Relations Office Tuen Mun District (PCRO TMDIST) in the Application of Technology Category, and

* "Prevention of Juvenile Crime thro' Multi-level Interface" of PCRO and DATS TMDIST in the Innovation Category.

After the prize presentation, SP Yuen Yuk-kin said the award for the DNA training project was a very pleasant surprise for him because originally it was mooted only with the objective of enhancing frontline officers' professional knowledge in and skills of DNA. They would enhance self-confidence, and more effectively collect DNA evidence and detect crime if they had a better scientific foundation in DNA.

Starting with officers in Yuen Long District, the DNA project has been extended to cover the whole Force, and the Police College has incorporated the project into its basic training course.

"It's a very cost-effective project which owes its success to the collective wisdom and contribution of officers of the Yuen Long District Crime Squad. The award for the training project is recognition of the Force's endeavour to promote the culture of providing quality services," SP Yuen noted.

Speaking of the CC3 project, Chief Telecommunications Engineer, Mr Wong Chun-kau, said it is a mission-critical system that provides the Force with highly responsive and resilient capabilities to meet increasing safety and security needs that have emerged around the world. The system supports an integrated command and control environment that includes radio, telephone, incident handling, dispatching functions, and support for external interfaces to computer systems in other government departments.

"With a number of large-scale innovative information communication technology applications, user-friendly devices and seamless operations for frontline police officers, the Force has achieved improved efficiency in emergency response to public needs," Mr Wong added.

(More photos on centrespread)