Multiple officers wear same 'unique' call signs

The government says each police officer wears a unique call sign for identification. But RTHK found four with the same number at a protest on Christmas Eve. Photo: RTHK

Damon Pang reports

Multiple police officers have been wearing the same operational call sign on their uniforms, RTHK has found, despite the government's claim that the tags are unique and can be used to identify individual officers at protests.



Out of a group of around 20 police officers confronting protesters in Tsim Sha Tsui's Harbour City on Christmas Eve, at least four shared the same call sign.



Three male officers and one female all wore blue tags identifying themselves as YT T3 (TF).



Security Secretary John Lee had told Legco earlier this month that the call signs could be used to identify individual officers.



Lee had told lawmakers that these operational call signs are just as effective as unique identification numbers and strike a reasonable balance between ensuring members of the public can identify individual officers, and protecting the police from doxxing.



A former member of the Independent Police Complaints Council, Edwin Cheng, told RTHK that officers sharing the same number is obviously wrong.



Icarus Wong from Civil Rights Observer, meanwhile, said the force's management must address the issue and make sure the call sign arrangement is strictly enforced.



In response to RTHK's findings, the police said only that the use of calls signs does not undermine the public's demand to be able to identify officers.



The public's inability to identify officers accused of brutality at protests has been one of the most common complaints since Hong Kong's unrest began in the summer. At one point, police said there was simply no room on the riot uniforms to put the officers' numbers.