Police officer calls out man for allegedly taking photos of woman’s thighs on MTR (video)

Screengrab via Youtube.
Screengrab via Youtube.

An off-duty cop has been praised after footage emerged of him confronting a man who was accused of taking photos of a female passenger’s thighs on the MTR, though the case — which didn’t lead to an arrest — prompted discussion about police powers to search phones without a warrant.

In the two short videos, the unnamed officer in the gray jacket wearing what appears to be a police warrant card can be seen telling the suspect to unlock his phone, saying “you’re taking pictures of someone’s thighs, I was watching you.”

Cornering the suspect near the train doors, he says: “I’ll give you three chances, unlock the phone now or I’ll call my colleagues over. After the third chance I won’t give the phone back to you.”

The officer gives the phone back to the man to unlock it, but the latter appears to start stalling.

Suspecting the man may be trying to delete any incriminating evidence, the officer takes back the phone and says: “We have a department that can can recover files, so deleting things is useless. You want to play around? I can play along.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBi5IYxBkJg

Two videos of the encounter — which took place on a Kwun Tong line train towards Whampoa on Saturday, April 21 — were first posted onto Facebook on Monday, and has since been shared thousands of times.

One YouTube video of the confrontation has been viewed more than 121,000 times, with many commenters commending the cop, with remarks like “good job sir” and “there really are hero police officers out there.”

There were some, however, who questioned the legality of an officer demanding a suspect unlock his phone, arguing that the suspect had every right to remain silent and not hand over the password to his phone.

According to the Hong Kong Police’s stop and search guidelines, “a police officer has a general power to stop and question any person behaving suspiciously. Whilst doing so he may demand proof of identity, conduct computerised enquiries and search for weapons or drugs.”

The High Court last October, meanwhile, declared that Hong Kong police must have a warrant to search the digital content of seized personal technology items, unless it was to prevent imminent danger to the public, the possible destruction of evidence or if the discovery of evidence is “extremely urgent”, according to an SCMP story about that case, which was brought by a democracy activist after his devices were confiscated by officers.

According to on.cc, a police spokesperson confirmed that an off-duty police officer confronted a man suspected of taking photographs of women inside the MTR, and that the officer stated his identity and presented a warrant card.

The spokesperson said that after a preliminary investigation there was not enough evidence to arrest the man, a female victim left the scene and the man was allowed to leave.

They also stressed that any officers who wish to search and inspect electronic devices must comply with established and related procedures, and they will look into the appropriateness off-duty officer’s request for the suspect to unlock his phone.

Last week, a doctor pleaded guilty to using his mobile phone to film up-skirt videos of five women during an hour-long spree of furtive filming at a Kowloon Tong shopping mall.

He was caught by the boyfriend of the fifth woman, an off-duty police officer, who demanded the doctor hand over his phone.



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