Indecisive police

'Indecisive' police under fire

Manila police came under fire for being "indecisive" and taking more than half an hour to get inside the bus to rescue hostages after the last gunshots were heard.

Diana Lee

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Manila police came under fire for being "indecisive" and taking more than half an hour to get inside the bus to rescue hostages after the last gunshots were heard.

Hundreds of Hong Kong residents expressed disbelief and disappointment in discussion forums and on Facebook, saying the police officers were overcautious, if not slow, to storm the bus.

"Is there only one ax in the Philippines?" "Why didn't the police shoot the gunman earlier?" and similar comments were posted in the forums.

Dennis Wong Sing-wing, associate professor of the department of applied social studies at the City University, said the Philippine government is to blame for allowing the situation to get out of control.

He said the hostage taker's earlier actions, including releasing children and elderly people, showed he hoped his demands would be heard.

A bloody end to the standoff could have been avoided had the authorities shown they were willing to listen to him, Wong added.

"Yet there was no senior official from the government, no negotiator was sent to negotiate with him. The authorities failed to handle the crisis and they had no power tools to assist in the police operation, not to mention the failure to storm the bus immediately after gunshots were heard," Wong said.

"The police appeared to be in panic and indecisive. They spent more than 45 minutes breaking the window.

"They disappointed Hong Kong people and the world as well."

However, Steve Vickers, a former Hong Kong police senior superintendent and now the president and chief executive of risk mitigation organization International Risk, said rescue operations in kidnapping situations should not be underestimated.

"Clearly from the point of view of an operation it was not successful. The situation is not ideal when the police tried to get into the bus without success and it appeared to be an equipment issue. Yet we don't know at this stage why the Philippine police made such a decision," Vickers said.

If its intelligence found out that the gunman had started to kill hostages, the police had to act immediately, he added.

Vickers believed such a tragic incident could not happen in Hong Kong, where the best equipment and the finest anti-terrorism squad are available.