Few major cities in this world are as safe to live in as Hong Kong. And how did this enviable situation come about? It is largely because of our strict adherence to the rule of law, handled, at the sharp end, by hardworking members of the Hong Kong Police Force.

 

If you take a moment to reflect, you will recall that our teeming city streets are generally safe to walk in, even late at night. The same can be said for travelling on our superlative range of public transport facilities and urban open spaces. Such safety is primarily due to the diligence of police patrols at all hours and in all weather.

 

The inhabitants of many other major cities - such as Paris, London, Rome or New York - regrettably do not share this same level of personal safety. Hong Kong's Police Force enjoys the hard-earned reputation of being one of the world's finest, least-corrupt and most-effective law enforcement bodies.

 

Nor does their diligence result in Hong Kong becoming a police state, where even law-abiding citizens live in fear of the police, as is sadly the case in too many other parts of the world. The only people here who have anything to fear from our police are wrongdoers, as officers try to deter their illegal activities and catch them. All this should not be taken for granted, because such safety adds a lot to our quality of life.

 

However, public support for our men and women in blue is by no means confined to their activities in uniform. For many officers, striving to serve the community was what motivated them to enroll in the police in the first place. Such a community spirit is reflected in the range of outreach and charity support activities police officers often undertake in their limited free time as volunteers.

 

There are, for example, projects to help the needy: the elderly, the infirm and disabled, to set teenage criminals on the straight and narrow, to visit the sick, and help the poor. These are all part of an impressive array of community service programs which the police participate in on a voluntary basis in their own time.

 

You could look for no better example of this than the way the police recently chose to celebrate their 170th anniversary. Two marvelous concerts were arranged in early April at City Hall, with performances by the police band, their stirring bag-pipers, the police choir, the Chinese Culture Club Chinese Orchestra, the Hong Kong drum ensemble, and renditions of popular local songs by the charismatic Frances Yip Lai-yee, a former policewoman.

 

The public were able to purchase tickets for these two shows. The ticket money, as well as donations from concert-goers, was devoted entirely to two worthy local charities - the Children's Cancer Foundation and the Helping Hand. With full houses both nights, millions of dollars were raised to support these charities. But that was not all.

 

A third concert was arranged, with the invited audience made up of less-fortunate members of the community, such as the disabled, the old people who are poor, and almost 200 members of the Hong Kong Federation of the Blind (HKFB). This additional show provided a much-enjoyed day out on a wet April afternoon to some 1,400 people. Blind people particularly appreciate the magic of music.

 

Such wonderful community "extra-curricular" activities by police are often not as well-known as they should be. Another example is blind people from the HKFB are also regularly invited to concerts by the police band at the Police College in Aberdeen.

 

These community support activities of the police, undertaken beyond the call of duty, represent the soft power of the police. Hong Kong Police Force members aim to "serve with pride and care". The citizens of Hong Kong should take pride in them.

 

Paul Surtees

 

(Editor's note: The author is an adviser to the Hong Kong Federation of the Blind and a university lecturer in cross-cultural subjects.)