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To support the Force’s Strategic Direction “Embracing the use of technology for policing in the digital age”, Railway District (RAILDIST) launched an electronic Visiting Book system (e-VB) on June 6, 2022 to replace the existing physical hand-written logbooks. To complete the sign-in process, officers only need to scan the near-field communication (NFC) chip embedded in an “e-VB” acrylic plate with their Force Smart Devices.
Since 2021, Business Services Bureau and Information Technology Branch have consulted RAILDIST frontline officers through various channels and integrated their opinions into the newly designed “e-VB” system to upgrade the effectiveness of frontline officers and safety of the railway system.
In collaboration with MTR Corporation, RAILDIST fixed “e-VB” acrylic plates in the MTR stations. When an officer scans the NFC chip in the “e-VB” acrylic plate with a Force Smart Device in which the “e-VB” mobile application is installed to read the unique code of the chip, the application will automatically import the date, time and details of the officer. In case that the officers cannot sign-in because of other duty commitments or appropriate reasons, they can remark in the mobile application and apprise the supervisory officer to ensure proper deployment. Given the significant enhancement in the officers’ efficiency, more than 100 new “e-VB” locations have been added in RAILDIST to enhance the coverage of patrol.
Since February 2022, RAILDIST has arranged train-the-trainer workshops for officers in six operational lines to teach them how to use the “e-VB” mobile application so that they can pass on the knowledge and skills to other officers after finishing the training sessions. The video on “e-VB” has been uploaded to P-TV for officers’ viewing.
