Pagers are a new communication device as of this decade. They have been widely used in different walks of life. However, for police officers, they are not only useful for communication among colleagues: They can also help police to hear from the public when problems arise.

Since July 1, 1994, Sham Shui Po Police Station has provided a new method for reporting crimes by pager.

The pager that the Sham Shue Po police use is not a special pager. The station bought its pager from an ordinary paging company after considering prices and services provided, like any other customer would. However, the pager was paid for with government funds allocated to the station for miscellaneous uses.

The pager number was then printed on leaflets that were distributed to shops, public housing estates and residents' organizations of private housing estates in the region.

Citizens now can just dial that number and leave a message for the police. They are totally free to decide whether or not to disclose their identificaton and means of contact. Moreover, all information is kept confidential.

Mr. Wong Chi Ho, the assistant officer in charge of the Task Force at Sham Shui Po Police Station, explained the advantages of this new channel. "This is an informal way to provide crime information. People are given the right to keep their names secret without get in touch with us directly.

"Even if someone provides false information through this channel, no legal charge will be made on them. All these help to overcome citizens' fear of dialing 999 or going to the police stations to report crimes.

"This channel is not only used for reporting crimes, but it can also provide advice and assistance on any problems concerning law and order in the region. More people's needs can be reached then.

"Police officers involved are dressed casually, not in uniform. People will not be afraid or tense. Then a closer relationship can be established between police officers and the public.

"After all, its ultimate objective is to gather more crime information."

This is information mainly concerned with general crimes, such as triad activities, illegal immigration,drug trafficking, blackmail and burglary. Sometimes, minor complaints such as noise at midnight or illegal dog-rearing at public estates are reported through the pager.

Regardless of the degree of seriousness and urgency, the pager is carefully monitored 24 hours a day.

Whenever a call is made, the Task Force officers will call back the person to ask more detailed information, or just take action based on the messages without the callers' identification. After understanding the nature of the case, details are sent to relevant departments and then investigations will be made as soon as possible.

For instance, cases about charging protection money are sent to the anti-triad activity group. Illegal gambling complaints are taken up by the anti-gambling group.

According to Mr. Wong, many crimes have been solved with the help of information collected in this way. "Anyway, it is good to have one more means to help the citizens," said he.

Mr. Foo Wai Lok, member of Sham Shui Po District Board, said, "The contribution of this channel is beyond doubt. Its success is mainly due to its simplified procedure to provide crime information."

He described the law and order in Sham Shui Po at present as "not too bad", except for some minor disturbance of residents by drug addicts.

In view of the success of the Sham Shui Po Police Station, Tai Po Police Station followed suit on December 1, 1994.

Basically, the two stations' practices are very similar, except that the Task Force members of Tai Po are sometimes in uniform instead of casual wear for trivial cases.

From December 1994 to January 1995, 52 cases were solved based on the reports made through pagers. Meanwhile, six invalid cases were made by calling the wrong pager.

There is also risk of the paging companies making mistakes in encoding and decoding messages, as well as people deliberately sending false information, knowing that no legal action will be taken against them. Such acts result in the unnecessary waste of time and manpower.

Mr. Wong reacted this way:

"There are many incidents of people playing tricks on the pager number, leaving meaningless messages, or messages with insufficient information and no identification of callers. Anyway, we still treat each case seriously, not being put off by those calls."

Mr. So Kam Pang, a Task Force Subunit Commander of Tai Po Police Division, said, "Since the use of pagers is an indirect and informal way of crime reporting, these calls are unavoidable. Even the direct 999 hotline is misused sometimes.

"In my opinion, the main risk is that somebody may page us for minor cases, in order to distract our attention while they commit more serious crimes.

"Thus, our Task Force is very cautious and always keeps a certain number of colleagues at the station."

After using the pager for several months, Mr. Wong reported:

"We have a group of officers keeping an eye on the pager to deal with the information reported. However, when there is only one officer to handle the pager between midnight to 8 a.m, cases that are less urgent are postponed to the following day. In fact, more manpower should be allocated to the night shift," he said.

As for Tai Po Police Station, evaluation on this new scheme will not be made until March.

"The key to success for this scheme is citizens' cooperation. Our efforts and improvements will be worthless without their support," Mr. Wong concluded.