The Force is a city police and a principal law enforcement agency. The portfolio of its duties covers a wide spectrum. Quite unlike other metropolitan cities, where reinforcement is always forthcoming from neighbouring cities, Hong Kong will have to depend on itself to provide a full range of crime and order maintenance, and internal security services.

Hong Kong is a geographically small but densely populated area. In terms of the size of the population and the problems it polices, the Force is by no means small. Hong Kong is quite unlike other metropolitan cities in the sense that other cities have separate independent police functions at federal or national level, for example, the Serious Frauds Office in England and Wales, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the US whereas the Force unites all policing functions within a single police service.

One result of all-round policing functions is that the Force accommodates a broad base of specialist posts and officers are given exposure to different policing responsibilities, such as traffic duties, and marine functions.

Safety in Hong Kong Waters

Marine police undertake the full range of coast guard duties, patrol a wide stretch of Hong Kong waters and maintain a big, complex fleet. Many other police forces have a marine policing capability; however, when compared with water police in other jurisdictions, Hong Kong has one of the world's largest and best-equipped marine police structures. The Marine Region works in collaboration with other government agencies in ensuring seaborne safety and security such as anti-smuggling and maritime search and rescue.

Safety on the Road

With a dense population and limited roads, smooth traffic movement and road safety are a major policy priority of the Administration. The Force, in collaboration with the Transport and Housing Bureau and the Transport Department, partakes in traffic policy and strategy formulation and traffic management in the territory. The focus is to educate the public, enforce road traffic legislation, advise on engineering improvements to road infrastructure and monitor sensitive transport issues.

Boundary Protection

Hong Kong has a 35-kilometre boundary with the Mainland and a 29-square kilometre frontier closed area. Although Hong Kong is part of the People's Republic of China, movements of people between the Mainland and Hong Kong are still controlled at designated boundary crossing points. Maintaining the boundary against illegal immigration is the responsibility of the police. The problem of illegal immigration has eased since the Mainland resumed exercising sovereignty in Hong Kong in 1997. However, Mainland authorities work in collaboration with the Force in protecting the boundary fence.

Further Reading

* Border District Website on POINT, <http://point.hpf.gov.hk:8088/bbs/regions/ntn/border/eng/brief.htm>

* Tonia Lo: 'Road Traffic Accident Trend in Hong Kong in the Past Decade' in IATSS Research Vol 28 No. 2004. <www.iatss.or.jp/english/research/28-2/pdf/28-2-10.pdf>

"Policing in Hong Kong" Report Series 6 of 11