PHILA SIUphila.siu@scmp.com
PUBLISHED : Sunday, 02 August, 2015, 5:05am
UPDATED : Sunday, 02 August, 2015, 5:05am
There was tension between rival rallies in Central. Photo: Dickson Lee
Police chiefs have stepped up efforts to win back the hearts of Hongkongers after satisfaction with the force plunged to its lowest level since 1997.
One senior officer, operations director Alan Lau Yip-shing, admitted the public's opinion of the police had worsened, and stressed the force did value the trust citizens put in it. He joined director of crime and security Lo Mung-hung to make the rounds of radio stations yesterday.
"To make Hong Kong a safe and stable city, the public's trust is very very important to us," Lau told Commercial Radio.
He later told RTHK: "The public's impression of the police has always been good until recently when there seem to be views that the impression has worsened."
Much of the dissatisfaction stems from the Occupy sit-ins last year. In September, scenes of police using tear gas and pepper spray in a failed attempt to disperse protesters in Admiralty caught international attention.
Matters took a turn for the worse in October, when seven officers were caught on camera seemingly beating and kicking an activist. The officers were suspended and arrested, but the Department of Justice has yet to decide whether to charge them.
Lau stressed the 79-day civil disobedience protests were a first for the police, as for the public.
"The complexity of the protests, considering the large areas and the turnouts, is one of the most serious challenges the force has faced in recent years," he said.
A University of Hong Kong poll in May and June found that public satisfaction with the force had plunged to its lowest level since the handover.
Lau said the force valued the findings of opinion polls and had, in fact, just completed its own study of the public's views. While the results are not yet out, Lau said the last such poll was conducted in 2011, when the public's opinion of the force was the most positive in 10 years.
Supporters and opponents of the police made themselves heard in Central yesterday, when rows erupted during rival rallies in Chater Garden. Dozens of members of the Alliance in Support of Our Police Force, led by Leticia Lee See-yin, assembled to celebrate the group's one-year anniversary. But scores of members of Civic Passion and Hong Kong Indigenous held an anti-police assembly at the same venue.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1845850/police-strive-win-back-hearts-hongkongers
