This chapter reports on study and research into the Hong Kong Police (HKP) organized into four sections: The study of policing in Hong Kong, which traces the development of police education in Hong Kong; HKP and Higher Education, which documents HKP engagement with higher education; the research of policing in Hong Kong, which describes the establishment of police studies as a scholarly enterprise in Hong Kong; and the Conclusion, which summarizes the chapter and provides a road map for this book.

Up until the 1980s Hong Kong offered no police studies as a recognized degree subject. There was little demand from the public nor was it attractive to employers. The image of the HKP was very negative, as being corrupt, abusive, and oppressive.¹ As recently as the 1970s, its ranks were packed with ruffians and gang members (黑幫).² “Good sons do not become policemen” was the adage. Few well to do or educated people joined the HKP. Academic pedigree and higher education counted for little in recruitment and or with advancement. In fact, too much education was considered a liability.³ Once joined, advancement and promotion was based on loyalty and patronage, being associated with a faction or entourage led by a senior officer (馬房, in Chinese the horse stable system). In those days, who you knew was more important than what you knew. The best skill set was knowing what to do (識做, e.g., kissing up), and acting appropriately (識撈, e.g., anticipating the boss).

In the 1980s, a group of criminal justice professionals, including police officers, gathered together informally at University of Hong Kong (HKU) to discuss criminal justice issues.⁴ The group evolved into the Hong Kong Society of Criminology in 1982, under the auspices of HKU.⁵ The objectives of the Society included: “to promote the role of criminology and develop the use of scientific approaches to the study of crime, victims, offenders and crime suppression in Hong Kong and neighbouring jurisdictions.”⁶

In the mid-1980s a British university started to offer a distance learning undergraduate degree in policing, mainly for police officers. It was very popular but was discontinued for lack of qualified local tutors.⁸ The teaching materials were all based on UK modules.

In September of 2000, Hong Kong University offered the first undergraduate criminal justice degree program in Hong Kong. It attracted mostly in-service disciplinary officers from the prison service, customs, immigration, and police.

Until recently, instructional materials on criminal justice and policing were imported from abroad. Portsmouth University, Leicester University and Hull University in England have been active in criminal justice and security studies since the 1980s. They all used materials from the UK to maintain standards and promote uniformity, so that a diploma earned in HK had the same value as one earned in the UK.

In December 1959 HKU’s Department of Extra-Mural Studies designed the first policing course for HKP.¹⁶ On December 7, 1959 the Commissioner of Police Mr. H.W.E. Heath opened the course with much fanfare. Miss Beryl Wright, an expert in family¹⁷ and child development,¹⁸ from HKU’s Department of Education was responsible for the course design.

Those who were chosen to study abroad were usually rising stars, destined for fast track promotion, ending in senior executive ranks, i.e., superintendent and above.²⁰ A case in point is ACP Charles Wong:

Before the 1980s, HKP officers who wanted to pursue higher education could not do so in Hong Kong. From 1980, HKP started a far-sighted program of sending promising officers to study at local universities, e.g., Department of Sociology, Department of Politics and Public Administration or School of Law at HKU, and Department of Sociology, or Department of Government and Public Administration at Chinese University of Hong Kong. After about ten years, the program was discontinued because many of the officers, especially those in law, resigned soon after they finished their university studies or professionally qu...