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This is a copy of a review of published in Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books, March 2013. Also available online
from the publisher.
Please
cite as: Deflem, Mathieu. 2013. Review of Policing in Hong Kong, by Kam C.
Wong. Criminal Law and Criminal Justice
Books, March 2013, online:
http://clcjbooks.rutgers.edu/books/policing_in_hong_kong.html
Policing in Hong Kong offers a report of selected aspects of law enforcement in one of the world’s most interesting locales, especially from the viewpoint of comparative social-science research. For a long time a colony of the British Empire, Hong Kong has since 1997 been politically organized as a special administrative region of China under the principle of ‘one country, two systems’. This principle basically secures that the socialism of mainland China will not be practiced in Hong Kong, where capitalism is maintained and where, as stipulated in the Basic Law of Hong Kong, a considerable degree of autonomy is assured with respect to executive, legislative, and judicial powers.
Policing in Hong Kong offers a report of selected aspects of law enforcement in one of the world’s most interesting locales, especially from the viewpoint of comparative social-science research. For a long time a colony of the British Empire, Hong Kong has since 1997 been politically organized as a special administrative region of China under the principle of ‘one country, two systems’. This principle basically secures that the socialism of mainland China will not be practiced in Hong Kong, where capitalism is maintained and where, as stipulated in the Basic Law of Hong Kong, a considerable degree of autonomy is assured with respect to executive, legislative, and judicial powers.
Professor Kam Wong
reviews the evolution of policing in Hong Kong on the basis of an analysis of a
number of important issues that are especially relevant from the viewpoint of
professional police administration. As such, the general title of the book does
not entirely convey the more delineated focus of this book on certain
administrative aspects of law enforcement, such as police reform, police power
and abuse, and accountability. Seven chapters are presented to discuss these
issues.
In the first chapter,
author Wong focuses on the history of police organization in Hong Kong,
focusing on the special characteristics of the colonial policing style. Of
particular concern thereby are, amongst other issues, the objectives of
colonial policing in matters of crime control and the maintenance of public
order, a most delicate subject matter in (semi-)autocratic and highly
centralized political systems. This review provides the necessary background
for the following chapter to review and discuss the present state and
organization of Hong Kong’s police. Here, Professor Wang immediately begins to
focus on a select number of themes rather than trying to present a
comprehensive viewpoint, especially by devoting attention to complaints against
the police and the abuse of police powers. In the third chapter, the control of
the police use of force is examined, with a special focus on the use of
firearms by the Hong Kong Police, and relying on a case-study concerning the
supervision of the police use of force within the organization as well as
detailing broader controls that are designed externally by means of policy and
law.
Wong then moves on to
specific issues and problems. Chapter 4 centers on the special issue of police
patrol and the question of the choice between a one-officer versus a
two-officer patrol system. He explores this question in police-oriented terms
in view of the objective of securing officer safety while not giving up on the
need for police to provide security. Chapters 5 and 6 focus on distinctly
modern and technologically influenced issues by centering on, respectively, the
special problem of police handling of computer crimes and the police power to
intercept communications. The book’s final chapter draws comparisons of police
reform between Hong Kong and China.
Professor Wong is
obviously placed ideally for a book on policing in Hong Kong, for not only is
he linguistically and culturally competent, he has also served as a Police
Inspector of the Hong Kong Police before he became an academic specializing in
the areas of law, criminology, and policing. It is doubtful, in fact, that
there is presently any scholar who would be better placed than Dr. Wong to
write a book-length treatise on the police situation in Hong Kong.
Necessarily, the
author also brings some of his own unique scholarly and professional background
to the analysis. Specifically, this book is written predominantly from a
criminal-justice orientation that is geared towards satisfying the needs of the
police professional. Thus, the work focuses on accountability and reform as the
leading issues of policing in Hong Kong, rather than on the dynamics and
conditions of the transformation of police from an informed theoretical
perspective. Given the special nature of the status of Hong Kong, especially
from a political and economic point of view, Wong’s choice is wholly
defendable.
While useful in
substance, this work has some issues of presentation and style that might have
been dealt with to make the work not only more presentable, but more convincing
in its claims as well. In particular, the book is at times rather poorly
organized and disjointedly presented, and tends to present various lists and
singular and highly specific topics and cases. The liberal use of many and, at
times, extremely lengthy footnotes additionally complicates the presentation of
ideas. As such, the book tends to come across as a rough draft of ideas and
themes that still needs to be developed into a coherent book.
The seeming unfinished quality of this work
complicates its being adequately assessed as a contribution to the
social-science and professional literature on policing. Nonetheless, for
scholars interested in the transformation of the police function under conditions
of natural experiments –besides Hong Kong, the reform efforts of policing in
Iraq, Afghanistan, and the various new states of the former Soviet Union serve
as additional examples—Kam Wong’s work will be an indispensable guide for
further research.
See related writings on police and policing.
See related writings on police and policing.
