Very often Chater Garden is the starting point for demonstrators or petitioners to march to government offices to stage rallies or protests. The garden is also the focal point for protestors to air their grievances and aspirations to members of the Legislative Council.

According to Station Sergeant (SSGT) Ng Chung-kuen of the Central Task Force Sub-unit (Public Order Events), CDIST handled a total of 1,833 public processions and meetings last year. In the first six months of this year, there were 793 similar events, 150 more than the 643 events in the same period last year.

As regards crowd management, the District dealt with a total of 316 activities last year. Again, the District handled more such activities in the first six months of this year - 118 compared with 92 in the same period last year.

SSGT Ng pointed out that the Force is duty-bound to police all public order events, and in doing so, officers' primary concerns are public safety and public order. Therefore, they will do their best to coordinate with all parties involved. In this regard, the organisers and the Police have to co-operate and be considerate towards each other.

"Another major concern for the Police is to ensure that any inconvenience to other members of the public caused by a public order event is kept to a minimum," SSGT Ng stressed.

Frontline officers' duties

OffBeat has also invited three officers from Waterfront Division - Sergeant (SGT) Ching Ming-wai, Police Constable (PC) Lam Hon-fai and Woman Police Constable Tam Ka-yan - to share their experiences and observations of policing public order events.

Both SGT Ching and PC Lam have more than 10 years' experience of policing public order events, while WPC Tam has had little exposure to the events so far in her two years' service though she is gaining more exposure and gradually honing her skills in dealing with the events.

"In policing public order events, officers very often work in trying circumstances. But we all do our best to make sure that a demonstration, rally or a petition would proceed peacefully, and the people concerned can express their grievances and aspirations openly. This is not an easy job, but all officers take it in their stride," SGT Ching noted.

He added that officers always adopt a positive and proactive attitude towards, and remain sensitive to, the grievances and aspirations of the parties concerned. They also remain alert to the problems that might crop up at the scene.

Unanticipated changes that happen in a volatile situation are a major concern for officers. Therefore, they closely monitor emotions and feelings, and do their best to maintain a dialogue with all parties.

The three officers share the view that in policing public order events, they put into practice what they have learned at the Police College and the Police Tactical Unit, and gained valuable experience. Besides the important job of maintaining law and order, they also took into account the needs of every party concerned as well as the interests of the general public.

SGT Ching stressed that on some occasions, officers played the role of a mediator. More importantly, they also worked hard to earn the faith and trust of the parties concerned by lending a sympathetic ear to their grievances and demands, and where necessary providing psychological counselling.

He pointed out that every frontline officer with a heart is capable of adopting a human approach to police a public order event.

For PC Lam, psychological counselling has worked in a case involving a lone woman demonstrator. "It was after I had lent a sympathetic ear to her grievances, shown her empathy and impressed her that I was there to help her that she finally ended her long protest and returned home," he recalled.

Speaking of her experience, WPC Tam said: "I had successfully used a similar human approach in handling female demonstrators. Nowadays many public order events involve the fairer sex; therefore woman police officers are playing an increasingly important role."

Wrapping up his interview, SGT Ching observed: "I think demonstrators or petitioners generally appreciate that we are doing our best to help them in accordance with the law. Officers might have a heavy workload, but the way we police public order events has earned the friendship and respect of many demonstrators and other people involved."

SGT Ching, PC Lam and WPC Tam recount their experiences of policing public order events