Hong Kong police pledge to effectively follow up on recommendations by Independent Police Complaints Council report

In response to a thematic study report released on Friday by Hong Kong's Independent Police Complaints Council (IPCC), the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government's Security Bureau and Hong Kong Police Forces pledged to carefully study and effectively follow up on the recommendations made by the IPCC report.

The "Thematic Study Report on the Public Order Events arising from the Fugitive Offenders Bill since June 2019 and the Police Actions in Response" sets out the IPCC's detailed review to gain a broad picture of the large-scale public order events and the corresponding police actions since June 2019, as well as 52 recommendations in improving police practices and procedures made in accordance with Section 8(1)(c) of the Independent Police Complaints Council Ordinance (IPCC Ordinance)(Cap. 604).

The HKSAR chief executive has requested the secretary for security to establish a task force and personally supervise the task force to study the report and follow up its recommendations, as well as to communicate with relevant departments and organizations, the spokesman of the Security Bureau said.

"The Security Bureau is now making preparations to convene a task force meeting as soon as practicable with a view to developing a work plan and identifying the priority items in respect of the 52 recommendations put forward by the IPCC," the spokesman said, adding that members of the task force shall include representatives from the police and other departments and organizations relevant to the review items.

"Different versions, statements and allegations of social incidents and issues covered in the report have been circulating across the society. The IPCC's report seeks to provide a complete picture of the incidents through rigorously reviewing a tremendous amount of information and cross-checking information obtained from different sources. We believe that the report can help ascertain the facts," the spokesman said.

"At the same time, the report has proposed a series of improvement measures which should be helpful to the police to better handle future public order events and further enhance their law enforcement efforts," he added.

A police spokesperson said the police acknowledge and accept the IPCC's report, and are grateful for the precious time and effort the IPCC chairman and members have contributed in conducting a comprehensive review within a short period of time and offered various constructive improvement measures on police handling of large-scale public order events.

"The police will seriously examine the IPCC's report and will participate in and fully collaborate with the task force steered by the secretary for security with a view to studying in detail and following up on the 52 recommendations proposed in the report," said the spokesperson.