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Hong Kong’s Inter-departmental Counter Terrorism Unit (ICTU) has launched a citywide campaign “The Hong Kong Taxi Drivers Spot and Report”, to encourage taxi drivers to report terrorist passengers and activities, with a view to building a safe community in collaboration with the public.
This comes after the police received over 20,000 reporting messages via a counter-terrorism WeChat and SMS hotline launched last summer. The authorities believe that the 46,000 active taxi drivers in the city are likely to come across terrorism and violence related people and activities, as such these taxi drivers play a huge role in fighting crime.
In view of this, the ICTU has reached out to over 40 taxi associations and companies, covering major ones in Hong Kong.  While introducing to them the Campaign, the ICTU also promoted counter-terrorism (CT) and anti-crime information including how to identify suspicious persons, objects or activities and encouraged members of the sector to report crime information in a timely manner.
The ICTU will also disseminate important information to all taxi drivers in Hong Kong through sector representatives to safeguard the community and ensure safety during the journeys, according to the release.
Apart from distributing leaflets and souvenirs during the official launch ceremony, the ICTU together with the representatives affixed promotional stickers on the theme of “Safe Journey, Spot and Report” in taxi compartments. 
With increasing public awareness of CT, the police have recently received several proactive reports from zealous taxi drivers which led to the arrest of offenders. During June this year, a taxi driver saw several people holding weapons on a street in Tuen Mun, while another witnessed a similar situation in Sheung Shui. 
Both of them immediately called the Police, resulting in the effective prevention of two criminal gang fights with a total of seven arrests.  In July this year, a taxi driver also spotted and reported a suspicious passenger in Tai Wai, which led to the swift arrest of a male suspect for “Trafficking in Dangerous Drugs”.
In the future, the ICTU will continue to work with the taxi sector in disseminating important CT and anti-crime messages to taxi drivers and sector representatives through various promotional campaigns. The ICTU will join hands with taxi drivers and the sector in combatting terrorism and building a safe community.
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