The Force's booth at the Education and Careers Expo held at the Hong Kong Exhibition and Convention Centre from February 21 to 24 was a hit with visitors, attracting tens of thousands of young men and women, who were interested in joining the Force and in knowing more about police work.

Besides the latest information on police recruitment and training, the visitors also came to know more about the equipment used by officers in their day-to-day work. Officers from the Recruitment Division were on hand to handle visitors' enquiries and process on-the-spot applications to join the Force.

Throughout the four-day exhibition, officers from the Airport Security Unit, Police Dog Unit, Emergency Unit, Police Tactical Unit, Traffic, and Weapons Training Division introduced their work and equipment.

During this year's Careers Expo, the police booth received more visitors as well as more initial and official applications, compared with Careers Expo 2007. This year, visitors totalled 52,400, compared with 40,000 last year. At the same time, enquiries totalled 17,044.

At this year's Careers Expo, the Recruitment Division received a total of 691 official applications for Probationary Inspector (PI) and Recruit Police Constable (RPC), compared with 353 in Expo 2007. In particular, a total of 415 official applications for PI were received thanks to the publicity campaign on its "PI Application Express", which expedites processing of such applications and improves services to the applicants. Under this arrangement, applicants will be informed of the selection process they have to go through and the timetable for each stage of the process. Another contributing factor is the use of a new application form, which was received and actually completed on the spot, ready for the subsequent selection process.

This year, the Auxiliary Police Force also took part in the Careers Expo, receiving a total of 126 official applications for its 2008/09 recruitment target of 256 Auxiliary RPCs.

Officiating guests stop at the police booth during a tour of the Education and Careers Expo