Hong Kong Police Force Traditional Chinese: |
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Logo of the Hong Kong Police Force
Traditional Chinese: |
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Motto |
We Serve with Pride and Care Traditional Chinese: |
Agency overview | |
Employees | 33,956 (as at 31 Jan 2017) |
Annual budget | HKD $16.8 billion (2015–2016) |
Legal personality | Governmental: Government agency |
Jurisdictional structure | |
Governing body | Security Bureau (Hong Kong) |
General nature | |
Operational structure | |
Headquarters | 1 Arsenal Street, Wan Chai, Hong Kong |
Sworn members | 29,377 (as at 31 Jan 2017) |
Minister responsible | Lai Tung-kwok, Secretary for Security |
Agency executive | Stephen Lo Wai-chung, Commissioner of Police |
Website | |
Hong Kong Police Force |
Hong Kong Police Force | |||||||||||||||
Traditional Chinese | 香港警務處 | ||||||||||||||
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Simplified Chinese | 香港警务处 | ||||||||||||||
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Hong Kong Police | |||||||||||||||
Chinese | 香港警察 | ||||||||||||||
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Transcriptions | |
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Standard Mandarin | |
Hanyu Pinyin | Xiānggǎng Jǐngwùchù |
Yue: Cantonese | |
Yale Romanization | Hēunggóng Gíngmouh Chyu |
IPA | [hœ́ːŋ.kɔ̌ːŋ kěŋ.mòu̯ tsʰȳː] |
Jyutping | Hoeng1gong2 Ging2mou6 Cyu3 |
Transcriptions | |
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Standard Mandarin | |
Hanyu Pinyin | Xiānggǎng Jǐngchá |
Yue: Cantonese | |
Yale Romanization | Hēunggóng Gíngchaat |
IPA | [hœ́ːŋ.kɔ̌ːŋ kěŋ.tsʰāːt̚] |
Jyutping | Hoeng1gong2 Ging2caat3 |
seven plainclothes policemen assaulting a handcuffed protester on 15 November |
The Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) (Chinese: 香港警務處) is the largest disciplined service under the Security Bureau of Hong Kong. It is the world's second, and Asia's first, police agency to operate with a modern policing system. It was formed on 1 May 1844 by the British Hong Kong government with a strength of 32 officers. In 1969, Queen Elizabeth II granted the 'Royal' prefix and the HKPF became the "Royal Hong Kong Police Force", only to be removed in 1997 upon the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong to China.
The current Commissioner of Police is Stephen Lo Wai-chung. Including the Hong Kong Auxiliary Police Force and civil servants, the force consists of about 34,000 personnel; which gave Hong Kong the second highest police officer/citizen ratio in the world in 2014. The Marine Region with about 3,000 officers and a fleet of 143 vessels in 2009, was the largest such marine division of any civil police force.
The Hong Kong Police has been serving Hong Kong since shortly after the island was established as a colony in 1841. On 30 April 1841, 12 weeks after the British landed in Hong Kong, Captain Charles Elliot established a police force in the new colony. The first chief of police was Captain William Caine, who also served as the Chief Magistrate.
The 1950s saw the commencement of Hong Kong's 40-year rise to global prominence, during which time the Hong Kong Police 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. In the 1970s and 1980s, large numbers of Vietnamese boat people arrived in Hong Kong, posing challenges first for marine police, secondly for officers who manned the dozens of camps in the territory and lastly for those who had to repatriate them. The force was granted the Royal Charter in 1969 for its handling of the Hong Kong 1967 riots—renaming it: the Royal Hong Kong Police Force (Traditional Chinese: ).