CPB honours outstanding Central Alarm Monitoring Stations
At an award presentation held at Police Headquarters on November 9, Crime Prevention Bureau (CPB) paid tribute to Central Alarm Monitoring Stations (CAMS) for their contributions to reducing false alarms.
In a bid to save police resources in dealing with false alarms, CPB has been encouraging CAMS subscribers to install up-to-standard intruder alarm systems. In addition, CPB also runs a Prevention of False Alarms Award Scheme to recognise the efforts of outstanding CAMS by offering gold, silver and bronze awards to the four categories of CAMS (less than 100 subscribers; between 100 and 500 subscribers; between 501 and 2,000 subscribers; and more than 2,000 subscribers).
At the presentation ceremony, Chief Superintendent (CSP) Steven Carruthers, Mr Daniel Cham, Chairman of the Security and Guarding Services Industry Authority, Crime Support Group Senior Superintendent Pang Mo-yin and CPB Superintendent Kwok Yik-man presented awards to the companies operating CAMS of each category.
CSP Carruthers complimented the award winners and thanked them for continuing to support and assist the Police in minimising false alarms. "Although it's the Hong Kong Police that runs the Phased Response Scheme, it is the effort of the private security industry that has actually brought the false alarm rate down, reflecting improvements in not only technology but also their services and commitments."
In 1989 there were 12,024 alarm installations in Hong Kong with 47,423 false alarms recorded. In the same year, the Phased Response Scheme (PRS) for the Intruder Alarms Systems was introduced with a view to reducing wastage of police resources in responding to intruder alarm activations.
In 2004 the PRS was modified and became four-phased as it is today, leading to further drops in false alarms in the past few years.
"The fall in the number of false alarms has been of a tremendous assistance to the police in ensuring that police resources are not wasted and officers are available to deal with genuine problems," said CSP Carruthers.
Another
tribute to outstanding CAMS