Mr Ting passed out of PTS with the Commissioner's Certificate for academic achievement and the Baton of Honour. What followed was a career spanning 21 years in the crime stream and eight years in the Uniform Branch. His hard work and performance subsequently earned him advancement to Senior Inspector in 1981 and promotions to Chief Inspector in 1991 and Superintendent in 2000.

Shortly before he proceeded on pre-retirement leave on October 4, OffBeat talked to Mr Ting about his long CID career.

OffBeat learned that prior to applying for the post of Probationary Inspector, Mr Ting was no stranger to police work - he had already worked in the report rooms in Sham Shui Po and Tsim Sha Tsui for two years as a Police Interpreter.

And his decision to apply was made on the spur of the moment.

He recalled: "One day the DO gave me an application form for Probationary Inspector and said: 'Ah Ting, you can make it!' So I filled it out and left it on the out-tray. About one month later I was informed to attend a preliminary interview in PTS."

CO Commendation

Besides the Special Crimes Bureau, which marked the first chapter of his CID career, Mr Ting had also worked in various CID posts in Regional Headquarters, Districts and Divisions.

Upon joining the bureau, he was responsible for cases involving property worth over $300,000 or firearms, and before long made the grade in his work and obtained Commanding Officer's Commendation on two occasions.

He still has vivid memories of the case that earned him a CO's Commendation. The case required him to pose as a staff member of a garment factory, which had been robbed of sewing machines worth $300,000, and handed a suitcase stuffed with $100,000 in fake money as bait to a man outside a restaurant in Causeway Bay.

While Mr Ting asked for the whereabouts of the stolen machines, the culprit grabbed the suitcase, pushed Mr Ting to the ground and made off. With Mr Ting in hot pursuit, the culprit appeared trying to draw a gun, prompting him and other officers to open fire. The culprit eventually disappeared into the crowds in bustling Causeway Bay.

Following a block-to-block search in nearby area, Mr Ting and his colleagues finally seized the culprit inside an apartment. Follow-up actions later recovered most of the stolen property and nabbed four more suspects. Eventually all the five suspects were sent to jail.

Unforgettable case

Mr Ting also cited an unforgettable case which sounds like a thrilling movie episode. This time, Mr Ting's mission was to seize a pistol and a shotgun in an old Sham Shui Po tenement flat. When Mr Ting and his party knocked at an iron gate, a man slammed a wooden door on seeing the police and rushed back into the premises.

After prying open the gate and door, what the party found was pitch darkness. With guns in their hands, the officers fumbled in the dark and found an empty room, a second room with a woman and a child and a third room with the man inside. Eventually the party managed to flush him out.

After learning that the man had passed a gun to his roommate, the party laid an ambush outside the flat and accomplished their mission when the roommate returned to the flat.

Mr Ting further cited a case to illustrate that very often CID officers have to use approaches other than conventional investigation methods. In this case, he had to deal with a very cunning, resourceful and cold-minded serial rapist. The rapist would wear a hood and blindfold the victim whenever he committed an offence inside a makeshift shed in undergrowth in the New Territories. After committing an offence, he would set fire to the crime scene and make a hill fire report to the Fire Services Department, in order to eliminate any evidence he might have left behind.

The rapist's audacity to record every offence he committed with two video cameras inside the shed had betrayed him. After seizing the video tapes of several rape cases and some other exhibits at the rapist's home, Mr Ting was certain he was on the right track. Unfortunately, victims' inability to make a positive identification posed a major obstacle to a successful prosecution.

At this junction, Mr Ting turned to study the suspect's job, personality, family background and friends. He also tried his best to find out where the suspect's weakness lay. "He had a rather complex personality. He was an introvert and was a Christian. And he loved his wife. I was pretty sure I could wear him down emotionally and psychologically, and get him talk," Mr Ting recalled.

Mr Ting then enlisted the assistance of a Woman Senior Inspector, who is also a Christian, to wage a "psychological warfare" with the suspect. This approach paid off when he made a confession. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, which was reduced to 20 years on appeal.

Job satisfaction

It's job satisfaction that has kept Mr Ting in the crime stream for so long. He pointed out that satisfaction would defy description "when you've practically nothing to go by at the outset, but eventually manage to crack the case".

Although Mr Ting's detective skills were a contributing factor for cracking cases with hardly any concrete clues, Mr Ting regards "interest in the job" as the most important key to a successful CID career. "If you're interested in your job, you'll have enthusiasm for the job and you'll be able to resolve any problems!"

Next on his list of essential qualities for CID officers are good judgment, decision-making (especially for officer-in-charge), sense of urgency, common sense, and more importantly "try to get yourself involved in every case".

"I would strongly advise CID officers not to hesitate to ask for advice whenever they've come across any problems!" he noted.

In particular, Mr Ting wished to advise officers-in-charge not to leave the Crime Message to their subordinates. "The Crime Message goes to the CP. The way it's compiled reflects the amount of efforts put in and the ability of the officer concerned."

As a supervisory officer, Mr Ting's motto is "creating a good working environment for the staff". "I once told my staff: 'Your duty is to get your job done; mine is to make sure you work comfortably without any hassle!'"

After his retirement, Mr Ting plans to do more travelling and indulge in Chinese chess games on-line. He also plans to team up with retired Senior Superintendent Stuart McDouall to take on volunteer teaching work in the remote places of the Mainland.

SP Ting has offered valuable advice to CID officers