Hong Kong’s anti-corruption agency offered residents the opportunity to experience life as a graft-buster on Saturday during a 50th-anniversary open day event showcasing technology such as virtual reality training.
The event attracted visitors drawn by the popular portrayal of the work of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) in film and television.
Vincent Yi, a city resident from mainland China’s Guangdong province, said he learned about the open day from the Instagram-like social media platform Xiaohongshu.
“I’ve seen the ICAC in films a lot, which piqued my interest,” said the 25-year-old, who works in consulting. “The pistols they use felt quite heavy and being able to pick them up made me feel like I was in the films. It was also special to see the older generations of pistols I’ve seen on screen before.”
Daniel Chui Yu-ming, a regional officer of the ICAC’s community relations department, said the agency expected about 6,000 attendees.
“Our four days of open days held this weekend and the next will welcome about 6,000 applicants,” he said, adding that visitors were chosen at random from 19,000 applications for tickets, the highest number on record for the agency’s event.
Visitors could stop by the commission’s video interview room and identification parade facilities, which displayed firearms, historical photographs and television series on the work of the ICAC.
“We also want to introduce to the public our newly developed virtual reality [VR] investigation training system, which we use to train our staff as if they were working at the scene when instant response and judgment are required,” Chui said.
Bus terminus supervisor Yu Wong, one of the visitors chosen to try the VR training system on the open day, said the experience was enjoyable and stimulating.
“It required me to make a judgment to see who to follow and what clues to pick up [when investigating a case],” Wong said. “I applied for a ticket immediately once I learned about the open days in July.”
The 37-year-old was also impressed by the identification parade facility, saying he had never seen it in person and could not resist checking how the one-way viewing glass panes worked.
Father of two Kimson Yeh, who is in his late thirties, said he brought his two sons in primary school to the open day for the first time because he wanted them to learn more about local history and the organisation’s work.
“By visiting the open day, I felt it could also help build up good values and attitude,” the IT professional said, adding his sons were most excited about the firearms display.
The ICAC’s open days are organised every two to three years, with the latest one being the 11th edition and the first since the government lifted all pandemic-related restrictions. The previous open day was held in 2022.
