Police, Security Bureau Welcome IPCC's Findings

The police and the Security Bureau have welcomed a report by the police watchdog which found no "systemic problems" in the force, while a pro-government lawmaker hailed its findings as "fair and independent".

Secretary for Security John Lee, a former deputy commissioner of the police force in charge of management, has been named as head of a task force which will begin implementing 52 recommendations from the Independent Police Complaints Council's thematic study.

A spokesman for his bureau said: "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."

In a short statement, the police force said it would "acknowledge and accept" the IPCC’s report.

It said the force was "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".

In its report on Friday, the IPCC said it had found “room for improvement” in how the force dealt with anti-government protests since last June, but no systemic problems.

It backed the police over their controversial decision to storm the Prince Edward MTR Station in August and said officers did not collude with an armed gang that attacked passengers at the Yuen Long MTR station last July.

Pro-Beijing lawmaker Junius Ho, who was strongly criticised after being caught on camera in Yuen Long greeting men clad in the same white attire as the attackers shortly after the incident, welcomed the report's conclusions.

He said it was for the police and the Department of Justice to bring anyone who had broken the law to justice, and it wasn't for him to judge what happened.

"First of all, I'm not subpoenad to be the witness and secondly, I wasn't there, I'm just reading and watching the video, as much as you do," he said.

Ho reiterated that he had nothing to do with the incident and urged people not to believe "rumours".