Security Secretary Chris Tang said on Tuesday that he has been encouraged by a recent surge in applications to join the police.

The force had a vacancy rate of nearly 18 percent at the end of March. In early May, it scrapped height and weight requirements in a bid to attract more recruits.

Tang told lawmakers that the number of applicants for police constable jobs in May was four times higher than a year before, while applications for inspector roles doubled.

He attributed the rise to the lifting of the recruitment restrictions, stressing that a candidate can become a good officer even if he or she is an inch shorter than earlier recruits.

"So whether it's your physical fitness, police knowledge or discipline, we hope that we can train them at the academy to make sure they're qualified before they're passed out," the minister said at a Legco security panel meeting.

Tang rejected a call from the DAB's Elizabeth Quat to outsource some policing work, such as issuing various licences and illegal parking tickets, saying police knowledge is needed for these functions.

Federation of Trade Unions councillor Joephy Chan told Tang that she and some district councillors and political assistants fancy serving in the auxiliary police force, but are worried they'd be rejected because of their political affiliations.

Tang said law enforcement officers have to be impartial when dealing with people of various backgrounds.

He added that councillors' assistants would not be turned away as long as they could meet this requirement.