"When I started working for the police in 1973, there were over 100 homicides. At the time the population were between three and four millions people. Now we've a population of over seven millions, but there were only 43 homicides in 2004. For a metropolis like Hong Kong, this is a very low record, probably the lowest in the world these days. Obviously, the Force has done a very good job in crime prevention," he said.

Presently on leave prior to retirement, Dr Mong told OffBeat that he was also pleased to have witnessed tremendous improvements on the part of the Force in terms of quality service, professional knowledge, use of IT, quality of recruits and promotion of continuous learning. He has no doubt that the majority of the community share his observation.

"I really take pride in having worked with such a fine police force in the world!"

Dr Mong is the third generation of forensic pathology specialists from the Department of Health to have helped the Force crack heinous crimes.

As a budding Medical and Health Officer from the former Medical and Health Department, Dr Mong started working for the Force in 1973, "attracted" by the Pathologist In-charge, Dr Frederick Ong. Since then, he had climbed the promotion ladder to reach Consultant status in 1984, and took over the role of Pathologist In-charge in 1995.

As well as the Force's development from strength to strength, Dr Mong has also witnessed the building developments of PHQ. He started working in an office in the Caine House with three fellow doctors from his department. At the end of 1973, he moved to the brand new May House when it was completed. He further moved to Arsenal House West Wing in 1997 when May House itself was to be pulled down for building the present Arsenal House.

Dr Mong thoroughly enjoys assisting CID officers in bringing criminals to justice and exonerating the innocent. He noted: "It's a privilege and a rewarding experience to have worked with your CID officers, who have shown a lot of team spirit which is so important for cracking crimes!"

Every once in a while, Dr Mong came across during his work "many unnecessary traffic accidents resulting in injuries and loss of lives", and this explains why he is so concerned with road safety in his spare time.

Since 1987, he has been a member of the Institute of Advanced Motorists Hong Kong, which is a non-governmental organisation dedicated to promoting road safety in Hong Kong and has made contributions behind the scene to improvements to road safety law, road safety facilities, safety of road users and driving standard. As Vice Chairman of the institute, he has been attending meetings of the Road Safety Council.

Apart from the low homicide record, Dr Mong believes Hong Kong has scored another world record in terms of fatal traffic accidents. He noted: "Hong Kong is also one of the safest cities in the world in terms of traffic accidents, besides crimes. In 2004, we had only 160 fatal accidents with 166 people killed, which was the lowest record in the past 45 years. In 1993 over 300 people were killed on the road."

Despite this encouraging situation, he will continue devoting his free time to promoting road safety as a "full time volunteer worker".

As a medical doctor, Dr Mong is also pleased that Hong Kong has scored a third world record in longevity. "The life span of Hong Kong males surpassed that of their Japanese counterparts in 2004. I'm very pleased to see these three world records on my retirement", he noted.

After retirement, Dr Mong will also find more time for his hobby-driving. As Hon Vice-Patron of the Hong Kong Police Motoring Club, he will continue organising motorcade tours to the Mainland to raise funds for the under-privileged.

As he was packing up for his pre-retirement leave, Dr Mong found several old publications, including two quarterly Police Magazines of 1963, in his office library. He handed the publications to Commissioner Lee Ming-kwai during a dinner hosted in his honour by the Commissioner and senior Crime Wing officers.

At the dinner, Mr Lee presented a souvenir to Dr Mong in appreciation of his service to the Force.

Dr Mong shows the two 1963 quarterly Police Magazines tucked away in the library of his office