The Force's IT systems provide officers with the ability to interrogate databases, share data and information and communicate efficiently and securely in the electronic realm, characteristics so important for a modern Police Force that relies on internal and international co-operation.

The first article covers the specialists in the Infrastructure and Facility Division (IFD) of ITB.

Carmen Cheung is the Senior Systems Manager in charge of the IFD. She has been on attachment from her department, the Office of Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO), since April 2001. Areas of Carmen's responsibility that Force members may be more familiar with are the Police Data Network (PDN), servers, databases, and all IT desktop equipment including terminals, printers and scanners. She is also looking after three computer centres at Police Headquarters, Kowloon West and New Territories North Regional Headquarters.

Carmen is currently overseeing procurement of some 1,350 new network terminals to replace all computer terminals that have been in use for over seven years in the Force. Over 60 per cent of these new terminals are to be procured for frontline operational units (e.g. patrol sub-units in Regions and investigation units in Crime Wing). These new terminals will provide improved processing power and headroom for expansion. Of direct benefit to officers is a terminal that requires less time "waiting" for services and applications to action. This translates into an overall improvement in efficiency. In addition to equipment acquisition, Carmen is responsible for the provision of round the clock operational and support services for all Force applications and systems.

Asked what she thought of the Force, Carmen replied: "My experience of Force members is they are open-minded and professional. The Force is a very large government department in terms of manpower and what that means is the scale of the IT infrastructure must be correspondingly large, resulting in greater complexity for funding acquisitions and implementing projects. I enjoy the challenging role of ensuring that the Force IT components and systems are keeping up with technology and seeking opportunities to introduce relevant new technology for implementation."

Another FIT personality is Alex Lee, a Systems Manager and colleague of Carmen. He too is on attachment from OGCIO. Being an MSc and BA, Alex is also a Certified Information Systems Auditor with 19 years of government service (over seven years with the Force). He brings a wealth of experience for the benefit of Force system users.

New Project

While responsible for overseeing Force networking requirements and ensuring maintenance and support needs are met, Carmen and Alex are now working on a project to improve the overall security, reliability and capacity of the Police Data Network (PDN). The processing power for transmitting data among the computer centres will be doubled when the project is completed. The project also looks at infrastructure preparation for future developments such as voice applications.

Alex informs us that "The reliability, security and robustness of the PDN is vital for the Force as it is through this infrastructure that our offices are interconnected and by which we are able to access terminal and application services. Any area of slack in this enterprise would result in media and data leakage and inefficient communication."

The project will be completed next month. By then, New Territories North Region will benefit from the improved network so that voice-communication on the digital phone system will no longer suffer from "distortions" but enjoy a consistently clear transmission quality. The benefit will encompass New Territories South later when digital phone system will be implemented there. At the same time, frontline officers at some 27 locations, such as a formation transport office housed in a block separate from the main formation building covering all Regions, are relying on wireless networks for access to Force systems and their services. The wireless systems have been so adversely affected by poor weather that they will be replaced by wired networks that will be subject to the same high security requirements as those already in use by the Force as a whole. This will provide an immediate improvement to efficiency, as data transmission will be both reliable and faster.

Alex and Carmen in one of the Force's computer centres