Following is a question by the Hon Chan Kin-por and a written reply by the Secretary for Transport and Logistics, Mr Lam Sai-hung, in the Legislative Council today (May 3):
Question:
The Police launched the electronic report platform "Project PROVE - Public Reporting Offences with Video Evidence" (Project PROVE) in May 2022 for members of the public to upload videos or photos and report to the Police non-emergency traffic offences, and they hoped to raise the law-abiding awareness of motorists, thereby raising the general road safety. Project PROVE has received more than 57 000 reports up to the end of February this year. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the numbers of cases among the reports received by Project PROVE since its launch which involved (i) dangerous driving/careless driving, (ii) failing to comply with road markings, (iii) crossing continuous double white lines and (iv) failing to comply with traffic signals/traffic signs;
(2) of the numbers of cases among the reports received by Project PROVE since its launch which were handled and not handled; among such cases handled, the number of those in which prosecutions have been instituted; the reasons why the cases were not handled; the number of cases the reporting of which has been aborted by members of the public as well as the reasons involved;
(3) whether the Police currently accept only the submission of copies of videos or photos in respect of the above reported cases by members of the public in the form of CD-ROMs/DVD-ROMs, so that they can be adduced as exhibits in court; if so, of the reasons for that, and whether the Police will consider accepting the originals of the files concerned sent by email by members of the public, so as to streamline the procedures for submitting exhibits; and
(4) whether the Police will consider including "illegal parking" in the reportable categories under Project PROVE; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
Having consulted the Hong Kong Police Force in respect of the online traffic offence reporting platform Project PROVE (Project PROVE platform), my reply to various parts of the question raised by Hon Chan Kin-por is as follows:
(1) Since the official launch of the Project PROVE platform in May 2022 until April 21 this year, a total of over 68 000 reports have been received. As at end-March 2023, there were 13 316 reports involving "dangerous driving/careless driving", 8 897 reports involving "failure to comply with road markings", 12 200 reports involving "crossing a continuous double white line", 5 582 reports involving "failure to comply with traffic signals" and 3 998 reports involving "failure to comply with traffic signs".
(2) As at end-March this year, the Police had issued over 19 000 fixed penalty notices and instituted more than 2 400 prosecutions by summons for reports submitted through the Project PROVE platform. The Police does not maintain the other statistics required by the question.
(3) All evidence in court submitted by the Police should meet the requirements of the court to ensure that there is sufficient evidence to prosecute the offender. The Police is required to confirm the integrity of the chain of evidence (such as not being tampered or destructed) and to keep the evidence properly. As far as cases reported via the Project PROVE platform are concerned, presenting evidence by way of compact disc in count is relatively secure.
(4) In accordance with section 15 of the Fixed Penalty (Traffic Contraventions) Ordinance (Cap. 237), the fixed penalty notice issued for illegal parking shall be delivered personally to the person in charge of the vehicle or fixed on the vehicles; hence, the Police cannot issue fixed penalty tickets for illegal parking to the relevant vehicle owner afterwards (such as for reports received via the Project PROVE platform).
Ends/Wednesday, May 3, 2023
Issued at HKT 11:27