Crimes and security situations at the Hong Kong International Airport (2014/07/09) 

Following is a question by the Hon Yiu Si-wing and a written reply by the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, at the Legislative Council meeting today (July 9):

Question:

     Regarding the crime and security situations at the Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA), will the Government inform this Council: 

(1) of the number and the breakdown of the crimes which occurred within the precincts of HKIA in each of the past three years, and among such cases, the number of those that were detected as a result of the reports by members of the public; whether the authorities rewarded the informants; if they did, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;

(2) as it has been reported recently that the negligent and perfunctory working attitude of some airport security guards has resulted in loopholes in the security inspection work at HKIA, whether the Government knows the number and the breakdown of the complaints about the working attitude of airport security guards received from visitors by the Airport Authority in the past three years; and

(3) of the measures that the authorities will take to combat crimes at HKIA and improve the service performance of airport security guards, so as to maintain HKIA's reputation of having good security standard?

Reply:

President,

     Our reply to the various parts of the question raised by Hon Yiu Si-wing is as follows:

(1) The number of crimes occurred in the Airport District from 2011 to 2013 is at Annex I. The Police do not maintain a breakdown of statistics by the number of reports made by members of the public.

     To encourage members of the public to assist the Police in fighting crimes, Police will, having regard to the nature and situation of each case, consider giving those who render positive assistance to the Police in prevention or detection of crime, or in the apprehension of criminals, the Good Citizen Award as recognition to their contribution.

(2) The Aviation Security Company Limited (AVSECO) will investigate all complaints it has received. When a complaint is substantiated, AVSECO will take disciplinary or other appropriate action accordingly. Each year, AVSECO conducts more than 40 million security checks on travellers, air crew members and airport staff. According to the information provided to the Airport Authority Hong Kong by AVSECO, there were a total of 76 relevant complaints as received by the company in the past three years (2011-2013), of which 13 cases were substantiated. Most of these complaints involved the performance and attitude of security staff who were on duty, and the handling of restricted articles. The number of complaints as received by AVSECO by year is set out at Annex II.  

(3) The Airport District has launched the "Project PRE-EMPT" to instill the awareness of security and crime prevention in the airport staff through strengthening the communications with the airport community, thereby promoting the co-operation between the Police and the public in the prevention and combat of crimes. The project involves disseminating information on the crime trends and modus operandi of crimes in the district to the airport community, providing security workshops for the various industries in the airport community and providing an additional crime reporting hotline for the staff of the airport. In addition, the Airport District promotes the message of protecting personal belongings to tourists in the airport by various means, such as through public and cabin broadcasting, and regular report on the latest crime trend in the Police Magazine so as to provide citizens with relevant crime prevention messages.

     In order to maintain the security standard of the Hong Kong International Airport, AVSECO will continue to keep up and enhance the performance of its security staff through strengthening professional training in different work aspects, conducting internal security tests to verify the existing security measures, and enhancing the co-ordination of security checks by frontline staff.