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This article is an excerpt from former Commissioner Mr Lee Ming-kwai's dialogue with staff of the Hospital Authority on November 16, 2011.
I joined the Hong Kong Police in 1972. In those days, Police were corrupt and notorious. More often than not, Police assistance could only be obtained through bribes or relations.
I can still recall the layout of report rooms, which resembled the design of pawnshops. Members of the public could only talk to the duty officer with their heads up, begging for assistance. In the case where a duty officer was in a bad mood, he would simply send people away.
Back in those days, some colleagues would joke about complaints against Police as a criminal offence. Of course, this wasn't right.
Nevertheless, looking back between 1950s and early 1970s, complaints against Police were indeed few and far between. There were two reasons, firstly, the absence of a complaints system. Secondly, the public did not believe anyone would do them justice.
Try to imagine, what's the raison d'etre of an organisation if the public did not care to file complaints against it?
Response to complaints
Following the establishment of the ICAC in 1974, the Hong Kong Police had conducted a series of reform, including the founding of the Complaints Against Police Office (CAPO).
I came across my first complaint case when I was posted to CID Tsuen Wan (to be honest, I was the subject of complaints almost at every rank). In that case, the complainant refused to listen to my explanation and believed that I did not thoroughly investigate his case. Therefore, he lodged a complaint to CAPO. The complaint was eventually classified as 'Unsubstantiated' due to various factors.
I once told the complainant that Police couldn't solve each and every case. In response, the complainant told me that if Police couldn't crack the case and help him, why should he even bother to report it? I still remembered and reflected upon the complainant's comments.
Whether the complainant was right or wrong was a matter of judgment. However, it was certain that if a service provider could not manage its client's expectation, this would inevitably lead to dissatisfactions and complaints, and my view was not based solely on the aforementioned case.
Reasons for complaints
I handled hundreds of complaint cases during my two years tenure in CAPO between 1983 and 1985. The majority of complaints concerned neglect of duty and mannerism. It came to my attention that one of the major reasons for complaints was when Police had failed to meet the expectation of the public.
My tenure in CAPO had inspired me. Firstly, I noticed that complaints became extremely common in any fair and impartial society. The more impartial a society became, the more prominent is the complaint culture.
In a modern society where general public became more aware of their rights, they would resort to complaints in order to vent their feelings of injustice or would seek redress.
Do ask yourself. How would you feel when your service provider said 'tough luck' to you when you found what you purchased was not up to the standard?
Then, would you opt to live in a fair and modern society or a society full of bribery, relations where complaints system was absent?
Secondly, as a service provider, how should we respond to this complaint culture?
I decided to respond positively. Nevertheless, I was left with a lot of dilemma. Who was right and who was wrong? The complainant or the complainee?
On one hand, frontline officers had to deal with heavy workload with limited resources and time, which might lead to delayed and superficial response to the public's demand. On the other, complainants had high expectations and would like to be treated with priority. When they did not take your explanations, what could you possibly do?
How about those malicious or ill-intended complaints?
Those were only tip of the iceberg that I was required to tackle when I was serving in CAPO.