Global Report on Human Settlements 2007 - PoA-ISS

Urban crime and violence: Policy responses
101
Box 4.8 Changing styles of policing in Hong Kong since the late 1960s
The process of shifting from a traditional ‘command-and-control’
form of policing in Hong Kong, where the priority of the colonial
government (including the police) was to provide an environment
where trade could be conducted smoothly, to one which is much
more community based, has taken place over a period of 40 years.
One key element in this process of change is that the police force
has become very largely a force drawn from local communities,
rather than one that was more typical of a colonial military organization
housed in barracks – and the likelihood is that this major
change in the composition of the police force has been an important
element in the growing public acceptance of the police force in
Hong Kong over this period.
A trigger for change appears to have been the recognition
during the late 1960s that the traditional style was a factor in three
major civil disturbances during that decade, and that it had also
contributed to much public hostility to the police. A factor that was
clearly of considerable importance in this particular case was the
reversion of Hong Kong from British colonial to Chinese control in
1997, not only in the sense that this date was a watershed in its
own right, but also because the fact that this change was due to
happen clearly influenced events during the preceding years. The
major phases of change are as follows:
• A tentative start was made between 1968 and 1973, where the
main focus was on improved communications with the public.
• From the early to mid 1970s, this process was intensified, with
an emphasis on promoting police–community relationships as
a two-way process and on involving the public in the fight
against crime. This included major campaigns such as the Fight
Violent Crime Campaign, the establishment of the Police
Community Relations Officer Scheme in 1974 and the creation
of neighbourhood police units. By 1983, 90 neighbourhood
police units were in operation throughout Hong Kong. A
major effort was also put into liaison with schools, and today
Source: Broadhurst et al, 2007
the Junior Police Call Scheme is still the largest youth organization
in Hong Kong, with 505 primary school clubs, 383
secondary school clubs, and 144,203 members territory wide.
• There was an element of retrenchment in the community
relations efforts of the police in the 1980s, where the emphasis
during a period of reorganization was on trying to use limited
resources as effectively as possible. Neighbourhood police
units were scrapped; but to help make up for this loss,
Neighbourhood Watch schemes were piloted during the mid
1980s in two public estates that had experienced a surge of
burglaries and sexual offences. It was evident during this
period that there were some tensions among police senior
managers between those who favoured more conservative
approaches and those who favoured approaches based on
community policing; but by the late 1980s it had become clear
that the latter was the preferred model.
• In the period of the run-up to the reversion to Chinese
control in 1997, 1989 saw the appointment of the first Chinese
commissioner of police and the last British governor, who
brought with him in 1992 the idea of a customer-based service
culture. The development of a culture of service throughout
Hong Kong government activities as a whole included a public
pledge to transform the then Royal Hong Kong Police into a
‘service of quality’.
• The final stage, which continues, has been the adoption of
more localized perspectives and the promotion of a new image
of a people’s force with its citizen-centred slogan of serving
the community, including embracing modern information
technology. This process has had to cope with a less quiescent
public than in the past; and so periodically there are still
tensions between the police and groups in the community
which continue to raise questions about the balance being
struck between serving the community and fighting crime.
The emergence of
vigilante groups is a
very common way in
which poor and not
so poor community
groups respond to
escalating levels of
crime and violence
in the perceived
absence or
ineffectiveness of
the police and
judicial system
This has become an increasingly familiar phenomenon in
Brazil, Ghana, Jamaica, Kenya, Nigeria, Peru, South Africa
and Tanzania. 65 Vigilante groups have also started to emerge
in many other countries for the same reasons. Though wellintentioned
initially, vigilantism has obvious limitations. The
activities of vigilante groups have often been abused in that
they have the tendency to degenerate into anarchy and
become extra legal, whereby innocent persons are assaulted,
maimed or even killed in cases of mistaken identity or false
accusations. In addition, vigilante groups have been used to
settle personal and political scores. All of this further exacerbates
the problems of violence and lawlessness. The solution
to problems of this nature is for the state to examine why
vigilante groups have come into being, and to see whether
this reflects a failure of formal systems of policing and criminal
justice that should be addressed.
In terms of changes to the justice system, one development
that has been visible in several parts of the world is
the idea of restorative justice. This is based on ideas that
were originally part of tribal or clan-based cultures that
stand the risk of disappearing in the face of modernization.
For example, with respect to Port Moresby, Box 4.5
indicates that there is significant public support for reconnecting
with former tribal systems of justice. The idea here
is that the harm caused by criminal behaviour is emphasized,
and, as a consequence, restorative justice models
encourage communication between the crime victim and
the offender in order to facilitate healing, reconciliation and
rehabilitation. A similar system known as penal mediation
was established in France in 1992. 66 It entails finding a
negotiated solution to conflicts, where perpetrators are
made to face their victims; if restitution is made, the case is
not taken to court. Another example of this is the idea of
family group conferences, which have been part of Maori
culture in New Zealand for centuries and were adopted by
Israel during the 1980s as part of the development of that
country’s restorative justice strategies. Several Latin
American countries have also implemented projects of this
The activities of
vigilante groups
have often been
abused in that they
have the tendency to
degenerate into
anarchy … whereby
innocent persons are
assaulted, maimed
or even killed