Four Senior Inspectors - Mr Martin Tsang Fan-kwok of Support Wing, Mr Oei Jack-hsin of Marine North Division, Mr Ken Yeung Man-pun of Emergency Unit Hong Kong Island, and Mr Sean Lin of Information Systems Wing - attended a four-week Overseas Management and Development Training Course at the West Yorkshire Police Training and Development Centre, the United Kingdom, in February. Immediately after classroom studies, they spent a week on attachment to the West Yorkshire Police.

The training course aimed at enhancing inspectorate officers' core skills and managerial excellence. Attending the course with the four SIPs were five inspectorate officers from the West Yorkshire Police.

The course provided comprehensive training, covering the police powers in the UK and its developments, custody regulations, search and rescue operations, dealing with the media, handling of major incidents, firearms and weapons, crime scene management and technology crime. Other focuses of the course were police management, leadership, human resources and occupational safety. All these subjects enriched the SIPs' professional knowledge and provided an update on the social, political and legal environments in the UK.

During their training, the SIPs also discussed with their counterparts the challenges of police work, police management, co-operation among law enforcement agencies in combating terrorism, technology crime and corporate manslaughter, etc. Besides classroom studies, they attended cultural visits to the North Yorkshire countryside and the Cambridge University on weekends. They also took the opportunity to call on Superintendent Samson Cho, who is currently attached to the National Police Improvement Agency in Bramshill as Trainer for International Law Enforcement Officers.

To get a feel of frontline policing, the SIPs spent a week on attachment to the various units of the West Yorkshire Police, putting what they had learned into practice, and critically examining police response to emergency incidents, handling of domestic violence and use of IT. Their hosts also made special arrangements for them to observe policing of a major soccer match in Leeds.

In the views of the SIPs, their training course had not only strengthened ties between the West Yorkshire Police and the Force, but also contributed greatly to exchanges and communications among police forces in the world.

The four SIPs with Course Coordinator, Mr Graham Thorne (third left), Head of Training, Mr John Cocliff (centre) and Course Coordinator, Mr Bernard Mitchell