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Members of the public who had recent contact with the Police were very satisfied with the services they received.

Releasing the results of a survey on community satisfaction levels with Hong Kong Police Force today (February 21), the Director of Management Services, Mr Gordon Fung Siu-yuen said, "Feedback clearly indicated that the public regards the Force as a provider of high standards of service."

The survey was commissioned by the University of Hong Kong (HKU) on behalf of Police in the fourth quarter of 2000.

Using a standard telephone sampling method, a team headed by the Programme Director, Public Opionion Programme of the University of Hong Kong, Dr Robert Chung Ting-yiu, interviewed Hong Kong residents aged 18 and above, who had had recent contact with the Police.

"A total of 837 people who had a total of 1029 contacts through five different channels were successfully interviewed," Mr Fung said.

"The channels, namely Report Room, Dialled 999, Crime Office, Contact at Scene and Phoned Police Station, are major points of Police/public interaction.

"The survey will help the Police to better understand the public's needs in respect of the standard of service provided by the Force, identify areas of concern and take action to address them.

"It will also provide a vehicle for continual feedback from the public on actual quality of Police service provided, not perceived quality. This will form a basis for future Customer Satisfaction Surveys which will measure how well we are improving in the eyes of the public in meeting their expectations.

"It is heartening to note that 76.4 per cent of the interviewees are satisfied with the services provided by the Force," Mr Fung said.

Respondents were asked how satisfied they were with the Police service provided via different points of contact. They formed favourable views on five main areas of Police/public interaction. In particular, respondents considered their experience with Police at incident scenes and with the 999 emergency telephone service as very positive with 88 per cent and 85 per cent ratings respectively.

High satisfaction ratings were also recorded for the levels of service provided by Police Report Rooms, Crime Offices and when telephoning Police stations for assistance. (74 per cent, 74 per cent and 70 per cent respectively).

More specifically, in making contact with Police at incident scenes, politeness was rated a high 85 per cent by respondents. Other areas which rated highly included processing time (80 per cent), willingness to help (79 per cent) and clarity of information received from Police (75 per cent).

In respect of the 999 telephone emergency system, respondents were most satisfied with the willingness to help (89 per cent); waiting time (87 per cent); understanding the request (83 per cent) and the clarity of information received (82 per cent).

Each of the other three major points of contact, i.e., Report Rooms; Crime Offices; and Phoning Police Stations, scored highly in specific areas, namely politeness (82 per cent) and waiting time (77 per cent) at Police Report Rooms.

Politeness (79 per cent) and clarity of information (75 per cent) when visiting Crime Offices and waiting time (84 per cent) and understanding of request (77 per cent) when telephoning Police stations, also received favourable ratings.

"In support of our telephone system as viable points of contact, it is very pleasing to note that 95 per cent and 94.5 per cent respectively of respondents using the 999 system and phoning stations direct were successful on first attempt," Mr Fung said.

"However, satisfaction levels were not as high in the following areas, job knowledge in Report Rooms (60 per cent), processing time (56 per cent) and the clarity and accuracy of signage for Crime Offices (51 per cent) and a willingness to help when phoning Police stations (58 per cent)," he added.

When asked about the adequacy of keeping respondents informed of case progress, some 32.8 per cent were satisfied or very satisfied whereas 16 per cent were less so.

Those respondents dissatisfied with their dealings with Police were asked to suggest areas for improvement and the top six items were efficiency (37), courtesy (28), follow-up communication (11), impartiality (7), helpfulness (7) and fairness (7).

In short, the majority of respondents (76.4 per cent) viewed Police performance at the five main points of Police-public interface favourably. In particular, respondents were pleased with their experience with Police at the scene and via the 999 emergency service.

However, less favourable views were reflected on job knowledge of officers in Report Rooms, willingness to help by officers answering calls at stations, and clarity and adequacy of signage leading to Crime Offices.

Mr Fung said Police Management did attach considerable importance to the findings of the survey and would use them to drive further improvements to the existing high standard of service quality provided by the Force to the public.

He further said that the findings of the survey reinforces the Force initiatives pursued in the Customer Service Improvement Project for which he is responsible. Those areas that need improvement will be addressed and follow-up action in educating officers as well as stream-lining procedures will continue.

Please note that an easy-to-read summary for the 2000 Customer Satisfaction Survey will be available on the internet on the Home Page of the Hong Kong Police Force at http://www.info.gov.hk/police.

Add Police Report No. 1

Issued by PPRB

End/1245 hours, Wednesday, February 21, 2001

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