I refer to the 'News Bites' piece headlined, 'Auxiliary police win approval for union' (South China Morning Post, May 20), which said that police management gave the go-ahead for the formation of an auxiliary police officers' union.
Under the Police Force Ordinance police officers are not allowed to form unions. In addition being an auxiliary police officer is not a profession and it is therefore not appropriate for auxiliary police officers to form a union.
At a case conference of the Complaints Division of the Legislative Council on May 19, Director of Operations, Lee Ming-kwai, had clearly stated that there are existing channels for auxiliary police officers to communicate amongst themselves and with their regular counterparts.
The force's management has no objection, in principle, to auxiliary police officers forming an association and may consider communicating with such an association, depending on its nature and representation.
TANG KWOK-KEUNG for Commissioner of Police
