Police commissioner Tsang soon to step down

Hong Kong Police Commissioner Andy Tsang Wai-hung is set to retire "within weeks", bringing to an end one of the most tumultuous tenures a top cop has faced in the recent history of the force.

Tsang will be replaced by Stephen Lo Wai-chung, the current deputy commissioner of police in charge of force management, according to sources with a knowledge of the succession plan.

The top-level shake-up comes at a time of unprecedented change for the city's 28,000-strong police force as it grapples with the changing social, political and crime-fighting landscape of the city in the wake of the Occupy Central turmoil, during which - for some - Tsang played an unusually low-profile role.

In recent days, Tsang - a controversial figure who divides opinion within and outside the force - has earned the praise of both Beijing and Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying for the job he did during the three months of Occupy Central protests, but yesterday he refused to be drawn on his upcoming retirement at a crime-fighting conference.

His impending departure also coincides with a brain-drain of talent and experience from the force and internal moves to reshape the way it handles policing in an intensely political period in the city's history.

The Post understands that at least two long-serving and respected officers - one of them the commander of a key district in the city - have tendered their resignations before moving to jobs in the private sector, putting more pressure on a force still recovering from the Occupy Central protests.

Tsang joined the force in 1978 as an inspector and rose through the ranks as a detective in the New Territories to take up command positions in Wan Chai and in the Organised Crime and Triad Bureau before being appointed assistant commissioner of police, Information Systems Wing, in 2003-2004.