Commissioner shares secrets of bridging gap with his officers Police chief Dick Lee Ming-kwai may be head of a 27,000-strong force, but he still finds time to meet the needs of his frontline officers Mr Lee, 53, says he has to keep track of the frontline operation in order to manage the force well. 'You have to understand your core business. If you know nothing about the day-to-day policing work, you are not qualified to be a police commissioner. I believe that no matter how high you climb, you can't lose track of frontline work,' says Mr Lee, who sometimes joins overnight anti-crime operations. The commissioner, who took up his post last December, believes joining frontline operations improves communication with his officers. A change of attitude and good communication skills are the secret to bridging the gap with his 'troops', he says. 'You can't think that you're high above everyone because you're the commissioner. And you have to talk the officers' language - don't use management jargon or official terms.' Mr Lee says staying calm in the face of media or public criticism is another important skill a commissioner has to master. 'You're not professional if you are infuriated easily. If the criticism is reasonable, make a correction. If not, see what action you have to take to resolve it. You also have to ask your colleagues not to get angry, and this is more difficult.' Mr Lee tells how he coped with the criticism after Beethoven's Fifth Symphony was played to drown out protesters' voices on the night of the handover. 'I was not upset. To me, it was only a way to handle an incident,' he says. But Mr Lee, a history graduate from Chinese University in 1972, always recalls a quote from former British prime minister Sir Winston Churchill, who said: 'We learn history to reinforce our future.' And the lesson he says he learned from the Beethoven incident was: 'If the incident [is repeated], deal with it in a different way.' Mr Lee, who goes to bed as early as 9pm and wakes at 5.30am, says the greatest source of stress arises from the need to attend so many social functions. Given the choice, he says, he prefers to spend more time with his wife, retired chief superintendent Christine Lee Hui Ngan-fun, and family.