He added that this has been achieved following several years of cultural change and education, especially in how frontline officers deal with the public.

He observed: "The improvement in services and officers' attitude has brought about an increase in the community's respect for the police. Public opinion surveys in recent years have shown that people hold the Force and police officers in high regard."

Mr Thomas recently proceeded on pre-retirement leave and will officially leave on July 26, after 30 years' service to the Force.

He joined the Force as a Probationary Inspector in 1974, after serving in the Royal Air Force (RAF) for one and a half year. He left the RAF because "I wasn't particularly good at flying", and opted for the Hong Kong Police in preference to the Metropolitan Police, the British Army and the Canadian Armed Forces. He described this as a good career move which has brought him face to face with the unique challenges of police work in the multi-cultural environment of Hong Kong.

Mr Thomas looks upon the police as a career because it calls for a life-long commitment to the community.

He explained: "The police force is very different from other occupations, and that gives you tremendous challenges, responsibilities and variety of work. Variety is very important; on one hand you could be undertaking administration, planning work or you could be doing something, which is far more operational and quite specialist type of work. This variety is an important ingredient for job satisfaction."

Mr Thomas has spent the majority of his career in the Uniform Branch and part of it in the former Special Branch.

Two tours in P&D

He singled out P&D Branch for a special mention. He had spent two tours there from CIP to CSP. Among the many different projects he was instrumental in developing were the new PHQ and the Stations Improvement Programme, the outcome of which has been a source of great satisfaction and pride to him.

He added: "The PHQ project is very special to me as it was important that we got the planning right first time and that it passed through the legislative process expeditiously. This success was due to the excellent teamwork and close co-operation that we received from other departments, especially the Architectural Services Department."

The last three years were an extremely busy period in training for Mr Thomas as ACP (T). He said that during this period Training Wing and the Force as a whole had brought about many improvements to training. A major project undertaken had been the planning and implementation of the Hong Kong Police College. This necessitated a complete re-engineering of the management organisational structure and processes, improvements to many training programmes, introducing quality assurance and an improved library service.

Secondly, improvement had been made to training exchanges with the Mainland, with a well-structured training exchange programme put in place to the benefit of both the Force and the Public Security Bureau. This had given many officers unique opportunities to learn more about policing on the Mainland.

Supervising the planning and implementing the 15th Interpol Symposium for Heads of Police Training held last March, was the last major task for Mr Thomas as ACP (T). He noted that the event had put the Force on the international training map and was a good step in promoting the Force's expertise in the various areas of training.

"Clearly the Hong Kong Police Force is a learning organisation, and in the last few years Force members had developed a good learning culture which is the benchmark by which other departments set their own standards. Certainly our officers are better educated and more knowledgeable than before, but what is important is that they can apply knowledge effectively at the work place," he noted.

Mixed feelings

Mr Thomas said he would be leaving with very mixed feelings. He added: "Obviously I've enjoyed my career immensely but my wife and I are looking forward to the new challenges which we'll face upon leaving Hong Kong. So it's a new chapter in our lives."

Mr Thomas will soon put his knowledge of police training to good use again. He is expected to join Interpol in August, responsible for developing Interpol's global strategies for police training and greater sharing of training expertise among police forces over the world. After taking up his new job, he will be shuttling between Portugal and Lyon in France, as well as travelling to other countries.

Perhaps Mr Thomas's job with Interpol would keep him in touch with the Force."I'll have contact with many police forces, but I would hope that one of those I do have contact in the future will obviously be the Hong Kong Police. The Force has much to offer," he concluded.

Members of Training Wing staff have hosted a farewell reception for Mr Thomas

Disseminating anti-crime messages at an outdoor function