Following is a question by Professor the Hon Michael Ngai and a written reply by the Secretary for Security, Mr Tang Ping-keung, in the Legislative Council today (May 6):
 
Question:
 
     The Operations Wing of the Police Force provides a prompt and efficient 24-hour service to 999 callers, striving to answer all 999 calls within nine seconds and to respond to all genuine emergency calls within the established time limit. The average response time is nine minutes for Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon area, and 15 minutes for the New Territories. Response time is measured from the moment the Regional Command and Control Centre's 999 console receives the call to the arrival of police officers at the scene. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
 
(1) in the past three years, (i) of the respective annual numbers of calls received by the 999 hotline, the number of those calls which were genuine emergency calls, and the average waiting time for calls to be answered; (ii) of the percentage of calls which met the service standard of being answered within nine seconds; (iii) of the respective average response times for the New Territories, Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon area, and whether these met the service standards for those areas;
 
(2) (i) whether the 999 hotline has compiled statistics categorising the languages used by callers (including Cantonese, Putonghua, English and other languages); if so, of the relevant figures for the past three years; (ii) of the current mechanism for handling calls made in languages other than Cantonese, Putonghua and English; (iii) whether the Government will study the introduction of AI technologies, such as voice recognition and real-time translation systems, to the 999 hotline to enhance the efficiency of handling requests for assistance made in different languages; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
 
(3) (i) of the current staffing establishment of Police Communications Officers and the average daily number on duty; (ii) of the types of training provided to Police Communications Officers to ensure that they have sufficient judgement to determine whether a call for assistance is urgent and the nature of the case, so that each case is handled properly; (iii) whether the authorities have plans to continuously improve the quality and efficiency of handling requests for assistance; if so, the details; if not, the reasons for that?
 
Reply:
 
President,
 
     There are three Police Regional Command and Control Centres (RCCC) in Hong Kong, namely Hong Kong Island RCCC, Kowloon RCCC and New Territories RCCC. A 999 Emergency Call Centre is set up in each RCCC to answer the public's calls for assistance on a 24-hour basis. Police officers are also deployed from District/Divisional Consoles to handle cases of various nature, with a view to providing efficient and effective services to persons seeking assistance.

     The reply to the Member's question is as follows:
 
(1) The figures relevant to 999 emergency call services in the past three years are as follows:
 

	2023	2024	2025
Total number of calls received (number of emergency calls)	2 568 591 (81 659)	2 067 404 (82 382)	1 933 731 (80 568)
Average waiting time of incoming calls (seconds)	7.6	7.9	7.4
Percentage of answering calls within nine seconds	84.2%	85%	86.2%

     To ensure appropriate allocation of resources for each call for assistance, the Police classify incoming calls based on the content of the cases. In general, incoming calls classified as "emergency calls" involve incidents such as "assault", "arson", "burglary", "robbery", "fire", "person drowning" and "bomb discovery", etc.
      
     The Police strive to respond to incoming emergency calls within the specified time limit under the performance pledge, which is nine minutes for Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, and 15 minutes for the New Territories. Response time is calculated from the moment the RCCC's 999 console receives the call to the arrival of police officers at the scene. The percentages of response time meeting the performance pledge over the past three years are as follows:
 

Region (Performance pledge on response time)	2023	2024	2025
Hong Kong Island/Kowloon (nine minutes)	98.1%	98.8%	98.7%
New Territories (15 minutes)	99.6%	99.7%	99.7%

     The Police do not maintain data regarding the average response time within the past three years.
 
(2) The Police do not maintain a statistical breakdown by language used by callers. 
 
     Currently, 999 Emergency Call Centres provide response services in Cantonese, Putonghua and English. The Police has been closely monitoring the needs of different individuals in society and formulate various measures to ensure that callers who cannot communicate in Cantonese, Putonghua or English can receive appropriate assistance.
      
     The project TRANSLINK was launched by the Police in 2016. Under the project, designated telephones in the report rooms of police stations are connected to interpreters of subvented organisations. By way of three-way conference calls, the interpreters will provide immediate interpretation service in nine common non-ethnic Chinese (NEC) languages for NEC reporting incidents in person or by telephone. Starting from April 2025, the project has been upgraded to TRANSLINK 2.0, allowing uniformed frontline police officers to engage the interpretation service through the Police's smart devices.
      
     The Police have also been actively adopting new technologies. The Advanced Mobile Location (AML) service was introduced in 2023. When a call for assistance is made using a smartphone, the 999 Emergency Call Centre will simultaneously receive information about the caller's location. The AML service effectively facilitates the handling of situations where communication with the caller may be hindered due to language barriers or critical circumstances and can greatly enhance the operational efficiency in responding to emergency calls. 

     In addition, the Police launched the HKSOS mobile application in 2024. This application, specially designed for people engaging in outdoor activities, also features geolocation sharing functions. To facilitate transmission of SOS messages to the 999 Emergency Call Centres in case of emergencies, the HKSOS presents messages in graphics for nine common categories of circumstances, such as fractures, severe bleeding and breathing difficulties, etc for users to choose. With a single click, the user can directly connect to the 999 Emergency Call Centre, which will immediately receive the caller's location.

     The Police are also actively developing the Next Generation Emergency Telephone Systems, including a platform for handling multimedia data. This enables the public to send multimedia data (such as photographs) in addition to making phone calls and sending text messages to the 999 Emergency Response Centres for reporting incidents or seeking assistance.
 
(3) The RCCCs of the Police are manned by police officers (at the ranks of Superintendent, Inspector and Sergeant) and Police Communications Officers (PCO) (Senior PCOs and PCOs), who provide 24-hour service on a shift basis. All calls made to the 999 Emergency Response Centres of the RCCCs are answered by PCOs around the clock on a shift basis. Currently, there are a total of approximately 80 PCOs assigned to answer incoming 999 calls every day.
 
     As regards training, newly recruited PCOs are required to undergo a four-week training programme, which covers subjects such as the structures of the Police Force and various grades, the operation of the Command and Control Centres and the operation of the computer and communication systems. Additionally, training on case classification will be provided for PCOs to ensure that they possess the ability to swiftly and accurately assess the nature of each case of request for assistance.  Upon completion of the training, the PCOs will be deployed to the RCCCs to assist with the operation of the Divisional Consoles. Those who have accumulated practical experience of approximately nine months to one year and have met the performance standards will further receive a five-day training course on 999 emergency calls. They will be assigned to the duties of answering 999 emergency calls only after they have completed the course and met the required standards.

     The Police will continuously review the operation of the 999 emergency telephone system by, inter alia, exploring the use of technology to further enhance and upgrade the 999 emergency reporting system, to ensure that every member of the public will receive higher quality services. 

Ends/Wednesday, May 6, 2026
Issued at HKT 11:19

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