‘Tourist Police’ are bilingual, says PSP

The new police force that commenced operations this week comprises officers who are proficient in both Mandarin and English, the Public Security Police Force (PSP) told the Times.

“In order to fulfill the specialized functions of the ‘Tourist Police’, the officers selected for this task, besides having the professional knowledge in the police field, were all subject to specific language training, namely [in] Mandarin and English.” The PSP added that such skills are necessary as these officers will be stationed “prominently in the busiest touristic sites of the city” and reaffirmed that the new force’s mission is “to provide professional and quality services to citizens and tourists.”

The PSP’s public relations department also said that the new force would be tasked with “general policing, preventing and fighting crime” and “paying particular attention to the people flow, diverting and managing them, and implementing crowd control measures.”

The new force commenced operations on Sunday with 40 officers. They can be easily distinguished by their faction’s unique uniform, which has a more informal design and a distinctive color scheme. RM