The Hong Kong Police has been serving Hong Kong since it was established as a colony in 1841.
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On 30 April 1841, 12 weeks after the British had landed in Hong Kong, orders were given by Captain Charles Elliot to establish a police force in the new colony. The first chief of police was Captain William Caine, who also served as the Chief Magistrate.[1]
The Hong Kong Police was officially established by the colonial government on 1 May 1844, and the duties of the magistrate and head of police were separated. At the time of its establishment the police force consisted of 32 men. It was a multi-racial force, including white officers, and constables of Indian (mostly Sikhs from Punjab), Chinese and other origins. Policemen from different ethnic groups were assigned a different alphabetical letter before their batch numbers: "A" for Europeans, "B" for Indians, "C" for local Chinese who spoke Cantonese, and "D" for Chinese recruited from Shandong Province. "E" was later assigned to White Russians who arrived from Siberia after the Russian Civil War.
The head-dress also varied according to ethnicity: the whites wore kepis, the Sikh Indians had uniform turbans, and the Chinese wore a form of straw Conical Asian hat. All of them, however, shared the same green tunics in winter - giving rise to the nicknames, 'dai tau luk yee' (big head, green coat).
For several decades Hong Kong was a 'rough-and-tumble' port with a 'wild west' attitude to law and order. Consequently many members of the force were equally rough individuals. As Hong Kong began to flourish and make its place in the world Britain began to take a dim view of the government's lack of grip in both public and private sectors, and officials with strong values and Victorian concepts of management and discipline were sent to raise standards. Strong leadership, both of Hong Kong and of the force began to pay dividends towards the latter part of the 19th century, and business prospered accordingly. Piracy on the seas, a centuries old way of life for many dwellers on the coast of south China proved a thorn in the side of the Water Police from day one up until the early 1960s.
The 1890s brought challenges both operational and organisational - there were outbreaks of bubonic plague in 1893-94; whilst the annexation of the New Territories an additional 356sq.m. of land 1898-99 created difficult but surmountable problems.
The fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911 brought civil unrest and the start of WWI in 1914 saw many European officers enlist and return to UK. In the 1920s and 1930s, Hong Kong's general peace was punctuated by bouts of civil unrest sparked by labour disputes, instability in China and Japanese militarism. When war came again in 1941 an unknown number of police officers and reserves - Chinese, Indian, European and Eurasian had their lives taken by the Japanese during both the main conflict and the occupation.
Post-war, the mechanism of government in Hong Kong was a shambles; no men, no equipment, devastated buildings and important resources like intelligence files, fingerprints, criminal records and personnel documents all lost or destroyed. The Water Police had 4 barely serviceable launches. Nevertheless, the situation presented an opportunity to 'start from scratch' and after the 'British Military Administration', during which Colonel C.H. Sansom headed the force, Hong Kong was in a position to stand on its own feet again in May 1946.
When Japan invaded, the commissioner was John Pennefather-Evans, and through his war-time internment he worked secretly to draft a conceptual plan for the reorganisation of the force, presenting his plan in July 1946. Although he was not to head the force after the war, his plans were both sound and progressive. Governor Sir Mark Young broadly supported them and they were implemented under the formidable Commissioner Duncan MacIntosh thereby generating the foundations of today's structure and philosophy. The proposals included equality in recruitment and promotion for local officers and the cessation of recruitment of European constables. Moreover, doubts about the willingness of Hong Kong people to accept Indian officers who had worked, and often abused their authority, under the Japanese administration (December 1941 until August 1945) forced authorities to wind down the Sikh contingent. Instead, Pakistani and Shandong Chinese were recruited as constables and this went on until the early 1960s. The last European inspectorate officers joined in 1994. The first female inspector joined in 1949, followed by the first intake of WPCs in 1951 - currently about 14% of the force is female, holding all ranks between constable and assistant commissioner.
The 1950s saw the commencement of Hong Kong's 40 years rise to global eminence. Throughout this period the Hong Kong Police has successfully tackled many issues that have challenged Hong Kong's stability. Between 1949 and 1989, Hong Kong experienced several huge waves of immigration from mainland China, most notably 1958-62. The force also took over responsibility for manning the border from British forces in 1990-91. In the 1970s/80s large numbers of Vietnamese 'boat people' arrived in Hong Kong posing stiff challenges first for marine police who intercepted them, secondly for the officers who processed them and manned the dozens of camps in the territory and lastly for those who had to repatriate them before 1997.
The most serious challenge though has been civil disorder. In 1956 supporters of the China Nationalist movement defied government regulations to provide the pretext for the eruption of conflict with pro-Communist activists and sympathisers - serious disorder was suppressed by the force and British military. In 1966 Communist groups fanned the flames of riots which broke out over a price rise on the Star Ferry. Following this instance in spring 1967, at the time of the Cultural Revolution in China, left-wing workers instigated long and bloody riots. The Hong Kong Police lost ten men during the turmoil which saw a 10-month campaign of insurrection, bombing and murder. For its determined and successful efforts in suppressing this lengthy insurrection the Hong Kong Police were granted the "Royal" prefix in 1969. HRH Princess Alexandra was appointed by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to become the Commandant General of the Royal Hong Kong Police. The prefix was dropped at midnight on 1 July 1997 when China resumed sovereignty over Hong Kong, and the force reverted to the title 'Hong Kong Police'.
Despite loyal and steadfast service and efficiency levels which have grown steadily over 160 years life has not always been rosy. No administration anywhere in the world has ever been free of corruption in varying forms and severity. The spectre of corruption became really prominent in Hong Kong in the 1960s, the Hong Kong Police - as did almost every government department - experienced this and it peaked between 1962–74, involving officers of all ranks and ethnicities. Reasons? Motives and opportunities were many and varied, but chiefly - 'motives' (poor pay and worries about Red China invading and abolishing pensions), and 'opportunities' (Hong Kong was enjoying vibrant economic progress and its industrious, self-starter people were forming thousands of small street-level businesses all ripe for 'protection').
During this time, the police, along with members of departments like Public Works, Fire, Transport 'et al.' all had their own distinct methods of earning illicit income to boost meagre wages. The police were the offenders with the highest profile and took most opprobrium. It took the determined stance of Governor MacLehose together with Commissioner Sutcliffe to instigate the firmest of measures to eradicate syndicated corruption - and the establishment of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) in 1974 was the prime one. After teething troubles, including a mass walkout by officers in 1977, by the early 1980s a combination of the ICAC, firm police management, better emoluments and an amnesty had succeeded in destroying the overall culture, removing powerful figures, educating against greed and increasing accountability. It would be foolish to deny that there are no corrupt practices in any police force worldwide, but in 1974 Hong Kong set an example to the world and for over 30 years the police in Hong Kong have been as clean as any force in the world - if not cleaner.
Whilst 99% of the 35,000 police force is Hong Kong Chinese, the overall establishment reflects the cosmopolitan nature of Hong Kong. Whilst the recruitment of Europeans ceased in 1994, as of September 2009, there are 185 Europeans in the force from inspector to assistant commissioner, and a handful of officers with Indian, Pakistani, Thai, Singaporean and Malaysian heritage. Moreover, many Chinese officers have resided in countries such as Canada, USA, Australia and UK. New recruits have to satisfy basic academic and language requirements (read and write Chinese and speak fluent Cantonese) as well as be a permanent resident of the Hong Kong SAR.
Up until December 2004, when a year-round blue uniform was adopted the Hong Kong Police had two seasonal uniforms - a green/khaki (buff for women officers) summer uniform and a dark blue tunic for winter, with constables and sergeants wearing blue shirts and more senior staff wearing white ones.
Over the years, the proportion of Chinese staff within the Hong Kong Police, and the numbers of senior staff has increased, for many decades the senior leadership remained exclusively European, though this began to change in the 1970s, and from the first appointment in 1989, the Commissioner of Police (and his deputies) has been a local Chinese.
Responsibility for the prisons passed out of the control of the police in 1879, a separate fire brigade was formed in 1945, and the Hong Kong Police assumed responsibility for immigration and customs & excise duties until 1961 - although the boundary with mainland China is still manned by police and a very high percentage of smuggling interdicted at sea is carried out by marine police.