Retiring OC BSU looks back on his secondary duty
The Officer-in-Charge of Briefing Support Unit (BSU) and Assistant District Commander (Administration) of Tuen Mun District, Superintendent (SP) Chin Chi-chung, is calling it a day soon. He joined the Force as an Inspector in February 1983 and was promoted to Superintendent in 2002.
Throughout his career, SP Chin worked in various operational units, mainly in Police Headquarters and New Territories North Region. In addition to BSU, he was also very active in the Police Painting and Calligraphy Club, once serving as chairman and now as member of the club's executive committee.
With his civil engineering academic background, SP Chin was one of the founders of BSU when it was created in 1987 and has been a member ever since. An integral part of the Force's capacity to respond to terrorist and other major incidents, BSU provides support in maps and plans interpretation and production of 3-D models for operational planning and briefings. Apart from these, BSU also produces scale models of aircrafts, ships and buildings for death inquests or upon request by an investigation unit handling a sensitive case.
After serving as BSU's Second-in-Command, SP Chin was appointed OC in 1994, and has been leading the unit to take part in Force-wide Counter Terrorism Exercises. During his time in BSU, SP Chin also led its members in a number of extremely complex tasks, including providing scale models for the following incidents: "Shek Kong Camp Fire (1992)"; "Lan Kwai Fong Tragedy (1993)"; "Garley Building Fire (1996)", "Mei Foo Sun Chuen Fire (1997)", "Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital Vascular System Failure (1998)", "Hei Ling Chau Riot (2000)", "Tsui Chuk Garden Explosion (2002)", "Tuen Mun Highway Bus Accident (2003)", "Homantin Service Reservoir Police Opened Fire (2009)", and "Rizal Park and Coach Hostage Incident in Manila (2010)". Those models provided great assistance to end-users and drew rare praise by police officers, judges, coroners, lawyers and jury members.
Reflecting on his time in BSU, SP Chin commented: "Despite the fact we are only called in if something terrible has happened such as a major disaster, I'm glad I can make a contribution to the Force's response to such incident. Very often I see the sadness of the victims or witnesses when they are presented with models of the scenes but I know the models can often help them forget their trauma."
Apart from participating in operations, SP Chin also ran all the induction and refresher training of the unit and arranged unit members to attend suitable training courses, such as the AUTOCAD and "Certificate Course in Model Construction", to boost the unit's professionalism.
Over the past 25 years, SP Chin has played a pivotal role in establishing BSU as a professional and well-respected cadre. His enthusiasm and dedication have directly spurred a lot of officers into joining the unit. For this, he can look back with a great deal of pride in retirement.
"Not too many people can have a rewarding and interesting job. I've the double blessings of serving the community both as a police officer and a member of BSU. As I told the media before, most people build models as a hobby, we do it as a meaningful job. My colleagues both in my regular jobs and in BSU have been a great source of strength and inspiration to me. My career has allowed me not only to serve as a police officer but also to pursue my passion for model making in a meaningful and worthwhile manner. I'm extremely proud of my contribution and would be eagerly looking from the sideline as the next generation of BSU officers fulfil their duties and take up challenges. I've no doubt the unit will continue to develop from strength to strength and contribute to the Force and society."
Chief Inspector Ku Chin-pang of Complaints & Internal Investigations Branch has been appointed to succeed SP Chin as OC BSU.
SP
Chin's
flair for making models is a big help for investigators