Barge Beat
Smuggling Surveillance Improved
Earlier this week the Deputy Commissioner of Police Operations, Mr. Yam Tat-wing, District Councilors and marine experts from across Sai Kung watched as three police crafts "saluted" the goddess Tin Hau in Rocky Harbour.
Completing three figures of eight in the bay between the new Police Barge 3 and the Leung Sheun Wan temple, the crafts appeared to bow to the goddess as they sped one after the other. It was a fitting end to a ceremony to commission the new barge which is moored
| Deputy Commissioner, Yam Tat-wing, speaking during commissioning ceremony. Photo by K. Baumgartner |
tactically to act as an observation
platform, command platform and small boat support facility.
With its advanced radar system and strategic location, facing all entrances to the harbour near Bluff Island, the barge will facilitate smuggling surveillance operations in the area. It will also provide the police launches with an offshore base to reduce travel to and from the headquarters and act as a beacon for mariners in need of assistance. Detailed specifications of the barge are available here.
Barge 3, now one of four in Hong Kong waters, was to be joined in Sai Kung by a total of 5 new police launches this year (2 last month and 3 more later in the year) but one of these ran aground during heavy fog on 2 April.