Australian criminologist Roderic Broadhurst, who helped analyse constable Tsui Po-ko's behaviour, sees no reason why the public should lose confidence in the police force because of the case.
He said it would have been almost impossible to pinpoint Tsui as a killer because he had not displayed any outwardly extraordinary behaviour before the shoot-out.
'We need to remember it was one of the exceptional cases where Tsui would not have been picked up by a particular problem,' Professor Broadhurst said yesterday, a day after the marathon 37-day inquest closed.
He said that from an investigative point of view, there was nothing for which the police could be blamed because they had tried hard to track down the culprit in the years after the first two killings, of constable Leung Shing-yan and guard Zafar Iqbal Khan in 2001.
But in terms of moral issues exposed during the inquest, such as gambling and visiting prostitutes, Professor Broadhurst said the public had been let down as policemen were generally expected to be professional not only in carrying out of their duties, but also in their moral conduct.
However, the public appears to be more satisfied than ever with the force's performance.
In a poll released by the University of Hong Kong last week, the number of people dissatisfied with the police hit a record low of 3 per cent. Some 1,007 people were interviewed in March, halfway through the inquest.