Hong Kong protests: police stop regular foot patrols due to staff crunch and risk of being attacked
- Force replaces walking beats with mobile patrols, leaving areas – such as alleys – vulnerable to criminal activity
- Traffic enforcement, community engagement and joint operation against organised crimes also take a hit
Police have stopped patrolling Hong Kong’s streets by foot and reduced several anti-crime operations due to a staff crunch and the risk of being attacked, with violent acts against them escalating as the city faces its worst civil unrest in five decades.
Officers are instead patrolling in air-conditioned police vans, but force insiders stressed they were responding to all calls – with an average response time of nine minutes on Hong Kong Island and Kowloon and 15 minutes in the New Territories.
The force made the new arrangements earlier this month after noticing on online messaging platform Telegram some people planned to “lure officers to a call only to assault them”.
Police also received some suspicious calls at their call centre especially during or just before a public meeting or procession.
“We sometimes received fake calls. We have to be vigilant. Officers’ safety is our top priority,” a police source told the Post. “We have to double check each and every report to ensure it is not a trap.”