Violence against frontline workers: Hong Kong unions unconvinced that body cameras will help, call for more manpower
- Hawker control officers most at risk when acting against litterbugs and unauthorised shop extensions
- Food and Environmental Hygiene Department has proposed stiffer fines for offenders, bodycams for workers
Unions representing Hong Kong’s frontline hygiene and cleanliness employees are doubtful that a proposal to equip workers with body cameras will protect them from abuse or assault.
To avoid trouble when these workers confront lawbreakers, the unions said, it would be better to strengthen the manpower for enforcement and send them out in pairs, rather than individually.
The city’s hygiene laws are enforced by the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD), whose hawker control officers often bear the brunt when they book litterbugs and shop owners with unauthorised shop front extensions.
Last year, the department issued about 47,000 fixed penalty notices for public cleanliness offences, and about 16,000 fixed penalty notices for obstruction of public places, including shop front extensions.
There were 38 cases last year of frontline officers being assaulted, 25 of which involved members of its 2,000-strong hawker control team. There were 40 cases in 2021, including 27 from the hawker control team.
Out of the four cases reported in the first two months of 2023, three were related to hawker control officers.
In December 2022, the government proposed doubling the fixed fine for littering to HK$3,000 (US$382) in the last quarter of this year. The increase, which needs Legislative Council approval, would be the first in 20 years.