The Hong Kong Police Force has been facing difficulties filling more than 5,000 job vacancies after the turmoil that engulfed the city due to the government’s unpopular anti-extradition bill.
To attract more applicants, the enrollment requirement of seven years residency in Hong Kong was canceled in April, allowing candidates that have permanent residency in Hong Kong to apply for a job.
But some analysts say this change in policy by the Hong Kong government will allow further infiltration of Hong Kong society by those loyal to Chinese Communist Party (CCP), furthering Beijing’s control of Hong Kong society.
“This may be an initiative of the CCP to further penetrate and control Hong Kong,” said Xin Tian, a professor at the Aiken School of Business at the University of South Carolina.
He said that mainland police officer may flood into Hong Kong under the new rules, where they will gradually replace and finally take full control of the Hong Kong police, turning over the Hong Kong Police Force to the CCP as a tool to suppress the Hong Kong people.
“Many Hong Kong people no longer trust the police, and the problems may be more serious in the future. Police officers who don’t have at least seven years residence, are not familiar with Hong Kong’s legal system or the value of the rule of law ... [this] will have a negative impact on police-civilian relations and the judicial system,” Cai Yongmei, a writer who used to work for Hong Kong Times and Open Magazines, said.
Cai also noted that the Hong Kong government has the right to decide and approve permanent residents status, and that individuals from mainland China will be able to immediately apply for the Hong Kong Police Force as soon as their status is updated.
Well Paid Police Jobs Can’t Attract Applicants
Since the anti-extradition movement exploded in 2019, Hong Kong police have suffered a serious loss of staff. Even with favorable salaries and welfare packages, the police force has failed to attract enough applicants to fill its needed positions.Hong Kong’s Secretary for Security, Tang Ping-keung, disclosed in response to questions from Legislative Council members in January that there were 5,671 vacancies at the Ranks and Inspectorate level for the 2021-2022 financial year—a nearly 10 percent increase compared with the previous year and the highest in recent years.
Compared with the 1,440 vacancies in 2018-2019 financial year before anti-extradition movement, the number has now tripled.
The Police Force had planed to recruit 1,350 constables and 195 inspectors in 2021-2022 financial year, but by the end of last year, only 423 and 119 respectively were admitted, accounting for 31.3 percent and 61 percent of the recruitment target.
Police Superintendent Chan Shun-thing said that the number was greatly affected by the pandemic. He said the number of candidates has continued to decline since 2019 and the number of admissions last year was the lowest in recent years, warning of uncertainty in the future.
The force aims to hire 240 inspectors and 1,350 constables in the coming year, Chan said, which will be a difficult target to achieve due to the falling in the working-age population with mass emigration, the public’s lost of interest in taking up government jobs, and the manpower demanded to form the different disciplined forces.
According to the force’s website, police officers are offered free medical services, education assistance for their children, accommodation, civil service housing benefits, and other benefits. These are usually quite attractive for Hong Kong people. In terms of salaries, the starting salary for a police officer has been increased to HK$26,190 ($3,338) and can reach HK$44,380 ($5,656), which is much higher than the median monthly income of HK$31,500 ($4,015) for people with degrees. The minimum salary for a police inspector is HK$47,080 ($6,000) and the maximum salary can be increased to HK$91,615 ($11,676).
Chan also revealed that currently, there are 16 applicants who would have been unqualified to join the force under the previous entry requirements who can now reapply to join the force.
The force also revealed that it is recruiting five police ambassadors to strengthen its publicity efforts. Three of them have ties to the mainland; one graduated from a university in Guangdong Province, and the other two were born in the mainland. One of them moved to Hong Kong at the age of 13 and the other had more than seven years of residence in Hong Kong as of last year. Her husband is also a police officer.
