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Following is a reply by the Secretary for Security, Mr Ambrose S K Lee, to a question by the Hon Cyd Ho in the Legislative Council today (June 24):
Question:
According to various press reports, as the Police had made a wrong estimate of the number of participants in the "great march on July 1" in 2003 beforehand, insufficient police manpower was deployed to assist the public in participating in the peaceful assembly on that day. Similarly, as the Police had underestimated the number of participants in this year's "June 4 Candlelight Vigil", there was insufficient police manpower and members of the public who were on their way to participate in the event were advised by police officers to leave. Moreover, on many occasions following public processions and assemblies, there were significant discrepancies between the number of participants as announced by the Police and those by community groups. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) how the authorities estimate, before a public assembly or procession is held, the number of police officers to be deployed to maintain order, and of the role of the Central Policy Unit and the Executive Council; what mechanism has been put in place by the authorities to immediately mobilise additional manpower to assist in maintaining order when the actual number of participants turns out to be far greater than expected, and whether the police officers at the scene are under order to advise the public not to participate in the procession or assembly with a view to reducing the number of people assembling; if they are, of the rank of the police officers who make such an order;
(b) whether the Police will, on the day when a public assembly or procession is held, carry out aerial video filming and use the video systems in MTR stations to instantly assess the number of participants, so that the authorities concerned can immediately take appropriate traffic measures, such as increasing the frequency of MTR trains to facilitate public participation, or notifying the bus companies to make changes to routes in order to avoid the procession from sharing roads with buses, or opening up more traffic lanes so that the procession will have sufficient room to move forward; and
(c) of the means by which the Police calculate the number of participants in assemblies and processions; and the rank of the police officers who make the final verification of the statistics before they are made public?
Reply:
President,
(a) The Police respect people's right to organise and to participate in processions and assemblies. They will maintain close contact with the organisers of the events concerned and, as far as possible, facilitate the processions or assemblies so as to ensure that public order and the safety of other members of the public will not be affected. In handling public events such as processions and assemblies, the Police will make reference to the information provided by the organisers and past experience in handling similar events so as to assess the measures and manpower required for maintaining public order and public safety. The Central Policy Unit and the Executive Council are not involved in the Police's work in this area. In addition, the Police will also draw up contingency plans to cope with any unexpected situations that may arise, e.g. when the number of participants is higher than expected, in order to ensure that public events are held in a peaceful and orderly manner.
If the number of participants of a procession or assembly is higher than expected, the Police will, depending on the situation, implement corresponding crowd management measures such as traffic diversion and special crowd flow system, arrange for entry into the venue or access to the starting point of the procession via different routes, and deploy additional manpower to render assistance. The Police will also liaise with the organisers where special circumstances so warrant, e.g. suggesting to the organisers the use of nearby locations to accommodate participants of the event, etc. The Police's main responsibility is to safeguard public order and public safety. Neither the department nor the responsible police officers take any stance in relation to individual assemblies or processions, and they will not advise the public not to participate in such assemblies or processions.
(b) Depending on the need of the situation, the Police will make use of the closed circuit television systems (CCTVs) in the MTR stations, CCTVs installed by the Transport Department (TD) for traffic monitoring and temporary CCTVs installed by the Police as required for crowd management purpose, for assessing the movement of people participating in the processions or assemblies as well as the public order situation so that they can implement crowd management measures and make manpower deployment accordingly. At present, the Police do not carry out aerial video filming for their work in this respect.
When large-scale public assemblies or processions are held, the Police will liaise closely with TD on traffic arrangement. The Emergency Transport Co-ordination Centre of TD will monitor the traffic and transport situation in the vicinity of the venue so that, where necessary, it will co-ordinate with the departments concerned, including the Police, and the organisations concerned in the implementation of appropriate contingency measures for traffic and public transport services. Examples include temporary road closure and re routing of bus and minibus routes with a view to facilitating members of the public to take part in the events and making available space for the events. Bus companies and the MTR Corporation will also be asked to increase the frequency of transport services and adjust the locations of bus stops so as to clear the crowd participating in the events as quickly as possible.
(c) In the course of public assemblies and processions, the Police will assess the number of participants to facilitate the implementation of appropriate crowd management measures as well as contingency measures for traffic and public transport services, and to arrange for flexible deployment of manpower in order to ensure the maintenance of public order and the protection of people's safety.
During large-scale public assemblies, the Police will observe an from different locations. In general, the Police will estimate the number of participants of an event on the basis of the estimated capacity per square metre of the venue. As for processions, the Police will set up observation points along the procession route. The number of participants passing by the observation points will be estimated. With reference also to the duration of the procession, an estimate will be made of the number of people passing through various observation points. As a general arrangement, the most senior police officer in charge of an operation of crowd management is responsible for verifying the total number of participants of the event.
Ends/Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Issued at HKT 15:59
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