Hong Kong is able to uphold the rule of law, and maintain prosperity and stability because it has a professional, honourable and effective Police Force, the Chairman of the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications (HKCAAVQ), Mr Martin Liao, said on January 24 he when inspected a passing-out parade at Police College.

 

Speaking at the ceremony, Mr Liao said the Force played a crucial role in enforcing the law in Hong Kong, which implements a political system with a tripartite separation of executive, legislative and judicial powers.

 

Amongst the countries and regions in the world, Hong Kong is a city with the lowest crime rate. Mr Liao said this was because the Force had been doing an excellent job in upholding law and order.

 

Policing in Hong Kong evolved with time, and the Force constantly refined its procedures and practices to meet challenges over the years, he added.

 

He pointed out that officers had confronted unprecedented stress in a politically charged community with rising public expectations. In particular, during the illegal occupation over the past few months, many frontline officers worked extremely long hours and were slighted, abused and provoked by protesters. Even their family members were targets of verbal abuses and online threats.

 

However, the officers fulfilled their duties with professionalism, selflessness, impartiality and fairness, and won public support.

 

Noting that the Force would face more challenges, Mr Liao reminded the graduates to adhere to the core values of the Force, remain steadfast and restrained, and perform duties with fairness, selflessness and honesty so as to maintain the prosperity and stability.

 

Mr Liao congratulated the graduates who were the first batch of officers awarded the Professional Diploma in Policing by Police College. Through credit accumulation and the transfer systems in local and overseas institutions, the qualifications are pathways to lifelong learning.

 

"The professional diploma is just the beginning. Bearing in mind the challenges ahead, you ought to continue to develop your professionalism, leadership, communication and judgement," Mr Liao told the graduates.

 

The Professional Diploma in Policing and Professional Diploma in Leadership and Management in Policing for Recruit Police Constables and Probationary Inspectors respectively were accredited by the HKCAAVQ under the Hong Kong Qualifications Framework (HKQF) in June last year.

 

The former meets the accreditation standards at Level 4 (at the same level of an Associate Degree or a Higher Diploma of the academic sector) while the latter meets the standards at Level 5 (at the same level of a Bachelor Degree of the academic sector).

 

Being neither a tertiary institution nor a professional association, Police College is the first training institution to have acquired the accreditation status to run professional training programmes under the HKQF at Level 4 and Level 5.

 

A total of 36 Probationary Inspectors and 208 Recruit Police Constables passed out.