Role of Hong Kong Police

However, the traditional confrontational and top-down approach to commanding social obedience had generated a massive amount of tension between the police and the public (Lo, C et al., 2002). Besides, corruption is serious in the police force. The police had no accountability in exercising force. The public is therefore hostile towards the police force.

2. Later decades - Hong Kong Police as a Crime-fighter and Order maintainer

        Particularly in the 1960s and 1970s, crime has increased in Hong Kong (Traver, 1984). To focus on controlling crime and tackling the problem of fear of crime, the Hong Kong Police had developed into a more professional agency for crime tackling and peace keeping. Many services, such as disease control or ambulance service, were diverted to other agencies. The role of law enforcement and order maintenance of the police has been emphasized.

        They also liaise with various professional bodies that represent the banking, hotel, jewellery, property development, insurance, security, motor vehicle and property management sectors. They help refine the provisions of the Security and Guarding Services Ordinance and initiate annual reinspections of licensed security companies to ensure that the quality standards imposed upon the industry by the legislation are maintained.

3. After riots - Hong Kong Police as a community service provider

Riots are the milestone for the HK police to concern about public relations, after the riots in 1966-67, there had a decline of public trust of the police. In order to relax the tense police-public relations, foster preliminary public support for facilitating crime control, the police established the Police Public Information Bureau (PPIC).  The introduction of the Police Community Relations Officer (PCRO) Scheme, followed by other community-based policing programmes such as the Junior Police Call (JPC) Scheme, the Police School Liaison (PSL) scheme and the Neighbourhood Police Unit (NPU) scheme, has brought the Hong Kong Police Force into a new era of policing that adopt a community orientation in crime control. The Hong Kong Police is adopting a more community-based and service-based policing style and putting more emphasis in community participation in crime control.

4. The role of the Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) nowadays

The police are primarily responsible for the maintenance of law and order. Police role is expanded from merely crime control to include issues related to fear, order maintenance, conflict resolution, area decay, disorder. The HKPF management has laid out their operational priorities in four areas, that is crime control, emergency response, order maintenance and community relations. These priorities include: maintaining a strong visible uniform police presence; providing fast, effective response to emergencies and major incidents; using new technology, knowledge and equipment to enhance operational efficiency; strengthening the effectiveness of the criminal intelligence system; and enlisting public assistance and support in the fight against crime.  

These wide ranges of duties constitute to the three main roles of the HKPF: crime control, order maintenance and service. In short, we understand that the role of HK police is a variable which is changing from time to time affected by many factors such as political system, the environment and so on. However, there is a fix value that is the core responsibility of police such as protecting citizens by attacking crime in which we expect what the police must do.

What the Hong Kong Police actually does?

        Let us devote a little more space to examining what the HK police actually do in order to understand its real role. According to some research conducted by the scholars, the police work does not encompass by terms as law enforcement or crime control. Also, Sharpland and Vagg study (1990) argued that service and force roles are not distinguishable and they are interdependent. By considering the structure of the Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) and some community-based policing scheme as an example, we can find out by considering both law enforcement and social service tasks.

Force:

Law enforcement (Crime Control):

Crime prevention in the HKPF is a major police operation emphasised at all levels. At the street level, beat patrol officers are deployed in a way that makes them highly visible. Visibility is a goal in itself and is widely considered as an effective crime prevention measure. The beat officers are also given wide power and authority such as stop and search, which is believed to be another effective measure for crime prevention. Other units such as the emergency unit, crime unit, vice unit, and traffic unit at the district and regional levels also maximise their presence on the street. At the force level, the crime prevention Bureau plays a significant role in educating the public about crime prevention. The officers from the bureau promote the concepts of crime prevention with both business premises and individual residences. They identify government, commercial, and residential premises vulnerable to criminal attack and provide specific advice to their owners for target hardening (Hong Kong Police Review, 1997). They also liaise with various professional bodies that represent the banking, hotel, jewellery, property development, insurance, security, motor vehicle and property management sectors. They help refine the provisions of the Security and Guarding Services Ordinance and initiate annual reinspections of licensed security companies to ensure that the quality standards imposed upon the industry by the legislation are maintained.         

Order Maintenance

As an international financial city, the HKPF place great emphasis on maintaining public order. And because of the colonial tradition mentioned above, public order management in Hong Kong therefore has had a paramilitary character. After the 1997 handover, the HKPF continued to emphasise public order management. A crucial measure of this emphasis is the mandatory participation of every police officer in the Police Tactical Unit (PTU), which is charged with the responsibility to maintain public order.

        In the 1999 Public Opinion Survey, for example, maintaining public order stood out as the most frequently mentioned and most concerned area of service and 74 per cent were satisfied with crowd management of the HKPF (University of Hong Kong, 2000). In the 2001 Public Opinion Survey, the public indicated its high confidence (73 per cent) in the HKPF, believed that the police performed well in maintaining law and order (73 per cent) and public order (71 per cent), and regarded maintaining law and order and public order two of the most important policing areas (University of Hong Kong, 2002a).

Service:

Community Relation Service

According to the Police Force Ordinance (Cap 232), the Hong Kong Police is responsible for providing directions, responding to emergencies, and resolving family and neighborhood disputes which is to develop police integrity and strengthen public confidence. Also, the commitment to serving the people of Hong Kong is vigorously promoted in three areas in particular , that is enhancement of the complaints against police office (CAPO), improvement of police report rooms, and opinion surveys.

Additionally, the police initiated a project to improve police report rooms, stations and the service they provide to the public to improve the quality of service (Hong Kong Police Review, 1997).

On the other hand, the most significant youth programme is called junior police call (JPC), which acts as a bridge between the police and young people to help the latter develop into healthy and responsible citizens. Apart from participation in crime prevention activities, JPC members are provided with a wide range of sports, recreational, and educational programmes. For those young persons who have committed offences, the HKPF also plays an important role in treating them. This scheme and its related programme offer the juvenile an opportunity to rebuild his or her life and to start afresh. The superintendents and officers also collaborate with other professionals such as social workers in rehabilitating the juveniles (Chan, 1998). The HKPF has devoted considerable resources to working with youths in Hong Kong for crime prevention purposes.

Overall the police have made serious efforts in enhancing their partnership and communications with the community and have tried to adhere to the values they have publicly declared to uphold. Therefore, in my opinion, it can be seen as crime prevention or service because putting effort on service lead to avoid the rise of crime which is interactive.

We are able to see that the role of the HKPF in maintaining law and order and the role of providing public services is interdependent. The services provided by police may include conflict settlement or handling emergencies. When responding to these requests, the role of the police changes between law enforcement and social service as it depends on how the police decide his/her action (force or service) and depends on different circumstances and response varies from different police officers. 

After all analysis, I consider that the main role of the HK police work is peace keeping.  Due to the low crime rate and a colonial tradition, both service and force constitute to the ultimate goal of the Police Force – order maintenance (i.e. public order and crime prevention).

Part B. Hong Kong Police Force or Hong Kong Public Service?

The name of the Hong Kong Police Force must not be changed to Hong Kong Public Service. It is because the role of Hong Kong Police Force is still dominated by law enforcement instead of service. Take it simply, we can not replace a policeman/women to a social worker due to their job nature. In view of the question let us then consider the dominated role of law enforcement in the Hong Kong Police under the following heading: the perceived role of police within the Force ,the training received by police , appraisal system ,channels for community cooperation The distribution of resources.

a. The perceived role of police within the Force

        Several studies of lower-rank police views document the resentment of many at the extent to which ‘service’ calls detract from ‘real’ police work (Renier, 1978). It suggested that the police culture mainly rests on the action and crime-fighting orientation. Similarly in Hong Kong, especially its colonial historical background, police operations are always being emphasized in controlling crime and maintaining order. Most police perceive themselves as crime-fighter rather than social service provider. This illustrates that the role of law enforcement still dominate within the culture of the Hong Kong Police.

b. Training received by Police

        The Hong Kong Police College under the Personnel and training Department provide training to all Hong Kong Police. Foundation training provided by the Foundation Training Centre includes basic training for criminal investigation, firearms and tactics, and police driving and traffic training (website of the Hong Kong Police Force, 2008).  Although there is a little training about service such negotiation skill, compare to the foundation trainings mainly relate to crime tackling and order, it is relatively small. The Hong Kong Police is still considering law enforcement and order maintenance as the primary job.

c. Appraisal System

        Under appraisal system of the Hong Kong Police, good performance alone in the area of community relations works or community policing schemes does not constitute an adequate basis for promotion (Lo et al, 2002). Work related to the promotion of police-public relation and community policing schemes are only secondary consideration in promotion, which are supplementary to the law enforcement actions. The Police Force places more emphasis in the performance of crime control duties and order maintenance work when providing rewards and career advancement opportunities (Lau, 2002). The only way to be a higher ranking is to perform well in crime control duties and order maintenance work Therefore, the ‘real’ work of the Hong Kong Police is still maintaining law and order instead of providing service.

d. Channels for community cooperation

        According to the research conducted by Carloas Lo and Albert Cheuk, there is no adequate channel for the public to play an active role in the police’s community work. Public has no way in taking part in policy making and implementation process of policing. Effective channels for popular consultation and citizen participation are absence in the community policing programmes. The Hong Kong Police Force is less than customer-oriented or involving the community to constitute horizontal control towards crime. This also illustrate that the Hong Kong Police is not putting much effort in the area of social service, instead, it is still enforcing crime control and order maintenance.

e. Distribution of resources

        Most resources are given to the Crime and Security Department and Operations Department for law and order maintenance. Except the JPC scheme which is given substantial and continuous financial commitment, other community-based policing programs are not given enough financial supports. Limited budgetary and personnel resources are granted to support the community relations hierarchy (Lo et al., 2002). By evaluating the resource distribution, it is found that the local authority is still putting emphasis on law enforcement rather than service.

Conclusion

        We understand that the role of police is changing over time to time due to political, legal, managerial, policy, social personal and environmental factors. At the same time, police management strongly believes that effective policing comes with strong public confidence and genuine reduction in police brutality, disrespect, and misbehaviour (Bratton, 1998) and accepts the dual responsibility for reducing crime and fighting police misconduct. Great resources therefore have been invested in training officers on good behaviours and respect for the public. Street-level officers however may not see community relations as a straightforward process as they often view fighting crime and enforcing the law as incompatible with the concept of service and treating the public with respect.

        In short, the effort to build a new police culture of service and respect remains a challenge ultimately due to the fact that this is the area incompatible with the traditional police mandate of Hong Kong Police.

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Reference

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• Lau, R.W.K. (2002). Community policing in Hong Kong: limits to realizing a vision, a revised version of the paper presented at the Asian Policing in the 21st Century Conference, Hong Kong, July 29.

• Lo, C., & Cheuk, A. (2002). The Community policing in Hong Kong: Development, performance and constraints. Policing: An international Journal of Police Strategies and Management. 27, 97-127

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• Traver, H. (1994). The Royal Hong Kong Police. In Gaylord, M.S., Traver, H. (Ed.), Introduction to the Crimimnal Justice System in Hong Kong, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press

• University of Hong Kong, (2000). 1999 Public Opinion Survey on the Public Image of the HKPF. Hong Kong: Social Sciences Research Centre, Public Opinion Program, The Poon Kam Kai Institute of Management, University of Hong Kong.

• University of Hong Kong. (2002a). 2001 Public Opinion Survey. Hong Kong: Social

Sciences Research Centre, Public Opinion Program, The Poon Kam Kai Institute of Management, University of Hong Kong.

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