MR CHAN KIN-POR (in Cantonese): President, large-scale public order events definitely involve great chaos. While the police officers have to restore law and order, they also have to make arrests, and they may have to perform these duties alternatively, which means that after making arrests, they have to restore law and order again. In this connection, I would like to ask the Secretary how the work of evidence gathering can be carried out effectively. While the Secretary already gave a detailed reply when he answered Dr Priscilla LEUNG’s question earlier on, the Secretary has all along said that body worn video cameras are used on a trial basis. I would like to know when body worn video cameras can be provided for use by all police officers, so that the Police can improve their work in evidence gathering and bring lawbreakers to justice.
SECRETARY FOR SECURITY (in Cantonese): I thank Mr CHAN for his follow-up question. We have acquired a certain number of body worn video cameras and these cameras had been put into use. We are now in the review stage. At present, apart from body worn video cameras, we can also deploy special evidence gathering teams for large-scale events.
These special evidence gathering teams will capture the situation on the spot with hand-held high-definition video-recording devices. We provide special training in these respects, and the video-recording duties are performed by our crime investigation colleagues. We are currently considering handling chaotic situations with this two-pronged approach. We hope that in the event of chaos happening in the future, we can cope with the situation properly. As these colleagues have undertaken special training, they should be able to accurately capture a full version of what happened and film the situation effectively for submission to the Court as evidence. We will make continuous efforts in this regard and will not be stingy about the costs required.