Hong Kong Police
The police force in Hong Kong is both a point of pride and a cultural icon—a centerpiece of the city’s golden era of action cinema and the beacon holders of our reputation as Asia’s safest city. With a long and checkered history since its inception in 1844, our police force has grown and evolved alongside our city to become one of the best trained and motivated forces in the world. In fact, the 30,000 officers on our streets rivals the size of the police presence in cities like New York and London. We sat down with uniformed constable Ha Chi-him of Mong Kok police station to get a better understanding of what life is like on the beat.
Suit Up
“Uniformed police officers make up most of the force patrolling the streets, and they wear the classic policeman cap. Each unit has a different uniform. Police officers from the Emergency Unit (EU), myself included, wear berets, light blue uniforms and leather shoes. Every police officer is assigned a unique number that appears on our shoulder—mine is 8296. Whenever we are outside the police station, we are required to wear our full suit and put on the beret. You have no idea how hot it gets.”
The Belt
“I carry six items on my belt daily. My gun is stored in the right pocket, and next to it is a bullet-loading device. The other pockets store respectively a can of pepper spray, a police baton, a communicative device and handcuffs. Together they weigh 12 to 13 pounds.”
Packing Heat
“The most remarkable thing I learned from police training school is how to properly treat and use our guns. We were taught that having a gun comes with a complicated set of legal responsibilities. Being a police officer does not mean we are exempt from the law, so we can still be charged with murder if there is no justifiable reason for us to use our weapon. Internal regulations state that we can only use our guns if our lives or someone else’s lives are being threatened. I haven’t been in that situation before, and I hope that I never will.”
Language Barriers
“Most police officers speak only Cantonese, with a reasonable amount of English. It’s a problem when dealing with people who only speak a foreign language. But, just as it happened the last time I needed to talk to a man who spoke only Japanese, usually a passer-by who knows both of our languages will magically come up to us and help with the translation.”
Tactical Roots
“Before I joined the Mong Kok station, I worked in the Police Tactical Unit (PTU) in the East Kowloon district. While the EU responds after an incident is reported, the PTU takes a more proactive stance in combating crime. We identify black spots for criminal offences, such as pickpockets and robberies, and place a number of undercover policemen in the area. There is always a pattern to robberies and pickpockets: if a thief does it one time, the chances are he will do it again soon, and in the same area. When something happens, the undercover police officers will wait for the criminal to act, and then emerge and arrest him.”
On Patrol
"Before our shift starts, six of us line up before the loading and unloading area. We retrieve our guns and then a superior issues commands to load the bullets. After our shift, we do the same thing to unload the bullets and then hand them back. It’s a very serious daily procedure. After that, the team patrols in police vans and sends out two people at a time to patrol the streets. This mostly serves crime-preventive purposes. With a police van parked prominently and police officers patrolling the street, potential criminals think twice before acting. When we patrol the streets, we need to be able to spot crimes before they happen. If people avoid my glances or turn the other way when they see us, I will keep an extra pair of eyes on them.”