Studying Hong Kong Police Research

The study will be a part of my upcoming book, now in progress: POLICING IN HONG KONG (Florida: CRC - Taylor and Francis, 2013); final chapter? I will be using the 8-18 to look at how far the HKP has come in reform, or to some getting rid of the old ways. (This book has a different tone and textual than the on I just finished: POLICING IN KONG KONG (UK: Ashgate, 2012).

My overall approach to research in policing generally and as applied to HKP (or for that matter PRC "gongan") is that we should take an inside out and bottoms up approach. More importantly, we should get away the well beaten path of "best practices" as shaped and defined by the West. This is not to say that HKP or 中国公安 has nothing to learn from others, including the West (particularly UK or US). (三人行， 必有我师言。。。）But people ought to remember that HK is not UK and China is not US. Since Sir Robert Peel famously said: "The people are the police and police are the people." Policing cannot be fashioned away from the "expectations" of the people. (My theoretical rendition being: "The person who is closet to a problem - by impact and with resource - is the person to take care of the problem." Problem means "expectation denied". (Wong, "State Police Powers as a Social Resource Theory.")

I start with the proposition that ALL policing are local affairs, and in turn denominated by its culture and driven by its people. An elitist, top down, approach, in any other name (democratic, professional, legal policing), does not work, and would not last. Simply put: Professional policing - in the image of crisp uniform and polished car - is not policing in the raw, and certainly not people's policing.

In the study (reform) of PRC - HK police, I have argued elsewhere that consulting Mao ("群众伦“[mass line] on community policing & "矛盾伦“ [on contradiction] on fighting terror) is better than following what Peel. (I am now seeking to bring Mao up to date, and SCIENTIFICALLY.) By the same token, it is best to adopt 情，理，法 as justice principles than promoting legalism (legal fetish) as a rule