Responding to a video circulating on the internet showing a number of policemen gathered and removing their facemasks to smoke in an outdoor facility, the Public Security Police (PSP) said in a statement yesterday that the location in the video is a facility at the PSP headquarters in Zape, adding that no disciplinary or illegal behaviour has been found.
The statement noted that the area shown in the video has been designated as a smoking area for staff members.
However, the statement added, in order to further ensure the safety of the staff members and strengthen the government’s relevant COVID-19 prevention measures, the Public Security Police have strictly limited the number of people who can smoke in the area at the same time.
Meanwhile, Ma Chio Hong, who heads the PSP Operations and Communications Division, clarified during yesterday’s Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre’s press conference that the Public Security Police designated a smoking area in the open-air space at the PSP headquarters in accordance with the law years ago, adding that the number of staff members has been limited in the smoking area since Macau has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Macau detected its first novel coronavirus case in January 2020.
Ma underlined that the standards of law enforcement are consistent, while the process is rigorous, adding that the law enforcement process will never be different just because of the respective target’s special identity. He also underlined that the facilities in public places and at police stations are not the same so that they cannot be directly compared to each other.
Moreover, Ma said that in line with the special COVID-19 control and prevention measures, the police have been conducting law enforcement of the prevention and control measures only in public places, while the police are merely urging property management companies to control the number of people in private buildings’ communal areas and clubs. He underlined that the police have no right to enforce the law in a private residential area (without a judicial order or in an emergency).
Ma Chio Hong, who heads the Public Security Police’s (PSP) Operations and Communications Division, speaks during yesterday’s Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre’s press conference. Photo: GCS
