Policing in Hong Kong

Research and Practice

Kam C. Wong

• Editorial: Palgrave Macmillan
• Año: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781137557087
• Categoría: Social Sciences
• Categoría: Sociology

This comprehensive book examines the state of research on policing in Hong Kong. It surveys the history and development of the field of police studies in Hong Kong, and examines the various methods, problems and prospects in the field.

Part I

Study and Research

1

Study and Research

Introduction

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.

The study of policing in Hong Kong

Lack of interest in police education

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).

Start of Hong Kong society of criminology

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

With regular meetings and invited speakers, the Society of Criminology provided a forum for criminal justice scholars and police professionals to meet and exchange ideas. Since its inception the Society has had to struggle to expand its membership (48 in 2003), enlarge its activities (conferences, seminars, talks), and reach out for connections.⁷

Police distance learning and continuing education

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 1996, the Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK) took the initiative to aggressively develop an undergraduate program in police studies, with the infusion of funding, resources, and staffing. OUHK was the first to develop its own teaching materials using developers either recruited locally or commissioned from abroad, with the latter dominating. Needless to say, the literature and content were still very much foreign. The distance learning program catered for non-traditional students, most of whom were working professionals. Many came from the disciplinary forces, police, customs, immigration, etc.

The OUHK police program was the first to meet the growing demand for lifelong learning and professional development within the HKP. It appealed to disciplinary force students because it was a good career-building step, particularly for JPOs with no higher education, and those aiming for internal promotion to inspector.⁹

The OUHK program was attractive to working professionals because of its flexibility. With the help of an understanding boss, students could study without resigning or taking leave. One of the problems, however, was that of mixing of ranks. Rank consciousness inhibited a free exchange of ideas in class and project collaboration outside of school.

At about the same time, the School of Continuing Education at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUSCE) also started to develop its own diploma courses in policing and security studies.¹⁰ For example, the Police Study Diploma was specifically designed for JPOs. Many of the courses were remedial in nature, e.g., English, or vocational in content, e.g., first aid. It was also in heavy demand given the transformation of HKP’s learning culture. The teachers were mostly retired or serving senior police officers. Some students complained that CUSCE security and policing programs were diploma mills with little educational value or quality control.

Degree programs at universities in Hong Kong

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.

Later, the City University of Hong Kong developed an undergraduate criminology program, dedicated to applied research, within the Department of Applied Social Science. “The major aims are to produce degree-level graduates with the broad knowledge required to reflect on the concept of crime ... equipped with the knowledge necessary to undertake managerial and executive responsibilities within the crime prevention and security professions.”¹¹

For graduate education in policing, the Department of Sociology (Criminology) at the University of Hong Kong offered one of the first graduate programs in criminology at master’s and PhD level. Many police graduate students also preferred to study at the Department of Politics and Government Administration for an MPA, because its administrative and policy orientation best fitted police management needs.¹²

The Master in Criminology at the University of Hong Kong was started in 1986, geared towards police officers and other disciplinary services, e.g., ICAC, HKP. When it was first launched, it was oversubscribed by a ratio of 10 to 1, most of them police officers. The newly minted Bachelors in Criminal Justice (September 2000) started out with 67 students, nearly all of them police officers.

Instructional materials

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.

The students were also drawn to British materials because they were considered better, i.e., more authoritative as a source, more prestigious in their use, and more applicable at work.

However, the use of foreign materials raised a whole host of issues:

First, they were not developed by Hong Kong academics, knowledgeable about local student capacity and needs.¹³

Second, the UK developers were not informed on local conditions, e.g., developing materials ill-adapted to local use.

Third, the materials were not based on indigenous theory nor informed by local data, thereby raising issues with the validity of the theory presented, e.g., HKP personality types being different from US ones,¹⁴ and applicability of lessons learned, e.g., US community police strategy does not work in Hong Kong.¹⁵

Fourth, the materials were devoid of local context and content, thereby raising issues with their relevancy, applicability, and utility.

HKP and higher education

HKP university program

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.

The course, lasting for two weeks with 24 HKP officers, was designed to put crime, law, and punishment in a broader psychological, social, and cultural context. Lectures included: the conflict between Chinese attitude and British law; problems of youth; psychological aspects of crime–crowd behavior; psychiatric aspects of crime; reliability of witnesses; public and police; and treatment of offenders. Besides attending lectures, the participants also visited a number of clinical sites, the Tai Lam Prison, the Remand Home, and Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs.

The course lecturers included members of the university staff, senior government officials, and private individuals who were experts in the field. These courses became an annual feature of HKP training.

In the early 1950s, as part of a localization initiative, HKP started sending promising Chinese officers to undergo police training in England; to gain professional knowledge, exchange work experience, and expand their personal vision. HKP inspectors were trained alongside UK police officers and colonial officers from around the world in all aspects of policing, from CID (Scotland Yard) to UB (Metropolitan Police Training School). For example, on September 25, 1950 Sub-inspectors Hung Hung Heung and Fong Yik Fai were sent to the UK for a six-month colonial officers course with participants from all over the world.

The pair of inspectors was housed in the Metropolitan Police Training School with 300 recruits undergoing a 14-week basic training course. They finished the course with this observation:

It not only increased one’s knowledge in police work, but also broadened one’s outlook in many other ways. ... Equally praiseworthy are the policemen in London who are extremely polite and helpful to the public, and always appear to be “steady and sure” under all circumstances ... The women police are a remarkable feature of the police forces in the United Kingdom. Their smartness and ability compare favourably with the male police officers.¹⁹

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:

Mr. Charles WONG Doon-yee is an Assistant Commissioner of the Hong Kong Police Force. He holds a Master’s Degree in Criminology from the University of Cambridge. He joined the Hong Kong Police Force in 1978 and ... is currently Head of the Service Quality Wing, responsible for strategic planning, performance audit, performance review and complaint investigation of the Hong Kong Police Force. He is also responsible for the implementation of knowledge management in the Force.²¹

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...