The police received a report from a 24-year-old man on Monday (6th). A man who claimed to be a police officer asked for a body search and property inspection, but his $2,000 in cash was suspected of being stolen.
Subsequently, a 39-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of impersonating a police officer and theft. He was reported to have a criminal record, including falsely claiming to be a criminal detective last month and requesting a body search of another young man.
On Tuesday (7th), there was another incident involving a police officer's appointment card.
An online jersey shopping page stated on the Internet that a man used a police warrant to request the store to deliver the goods as soon as possible and threatened to open a case because of the delivery problem.
The practice of warrant card should be strict
Although in past demonstrations, plainclothes police officers were inconvenient to display their warrant cards because of their work, generally speaking, if a citizen encounters a police officer's body search, they can ask the other party to confirm their identity.
The Police Force Ordinance stipulates that "every police officer shall be issued with a warrant as evidence of his appointment under this Ordinance", and Article 14 also stipulates that uniformed police officers shall produce a warrant card if requested by the public, except in circumstances Not allowed; or the presentation of the warrant card will affect the operations of the police force and/or endanger the safety of the relevant personnel; or the request is unreasonable.
On the other hand, police officers should not abuse the appointment card for their own convenience.
If the aforementioned jersey purchase incident is true, the authorities should also verify and remind all law enforcement officials not to make similar mistakes.
In fact, some past cases have also illustrated the importance of using the warrant card correctly.
Last year, a citizen was accused of resisting police officers on duty, but because there was no evidence to show that he showed the warrant card as stated in his testimony, the magistrate therefore considered the testimony to be insufficient.
It can be seen that the warrant card can facilitate law enforcement, but if it is done improperly, it may also cause obstacles.
Relations between police and civilians tend to ease
From a broader perspective, the ethics and behavior of police officers is also a factor in the construction of mutual trust between the police and the people.
According to the latest poll by the Hong Kong Institute of Public Opinion, the police force’s latest popular score is 50.1, the first passing score since June 2019.
Although it reflects the improvement in police-civilian relations in the past two years, its performance is still a long way from the 60 to 70 minutes before June 2019.
In order to prevent illegal migration from taking advantage of loopholes to do evil, and to continue to improve the relationship between the police and the public, the police can actively improve some of the practices of law enforcement officers, including following the guidelines of the Police General Regulations.
The public should also have a more correct understanding of the law enforcement arrangements to avoid being used by some lawbreakers who claim to be police officers.
Seize the opportunity of reform to improve the image of the police force The government and society should support the reform of the police system