Since its establishment, the Police Museum has been providing the public with a better understanding of the history of the Force and various aspects of its work whilst preserving historic artefacts and facilitating historical research.

The origin of the museum dated back to the early 1960s when a group of senior police officers, headed by the then Senior Assistant Commissioner, Mr G A R Wright-Nooth, gathered together to find ways and means of collecting items of historical interest related to the Force. Their ultimate aim was laying the foundation of a Force Museum where all artefacts could be adequately housed. In July 1964, a Police Historical Records Committee was formed with the ultimate aim of realising the museum project. Appeals for donation of artefacts met a good response and the committee received valuable items from both retired and serving members of the Force, their families and associates.

Although exhibits were available, it was not until 1976, with the completion of an extension to Police Headquarters, that a 50 square-metre display area was made available. Collections, however, increased rapidly and posed a storage problem and in 1982, this overcrowding problem was temporarily relieved after moving the museum site to rented premises in the Tai Sang Commercial Building in Wan Chai. In 1984, the Government approved the use of the former Wan Chai Gap Police Station as a museum, providing permanent accommodation with a total floor area of 570 square metres. Renovation works commenced in the spring of 1987 and were completed in November 1988. The total cost of reprovisioning the museum was $1.6m of which $600,000 came from private donations.

The museum's major collections are divided into four categories: historic photographs and archives, police uniforms and equipment, criminal information and material, and police personal memorabilia. At present, there are some 2,000 items in the collection of which 600 are currently on display in four galleries namely, the Orientation Gallery, Triad Societies and Narcotics Gallery, "Hong Kong Police Then and Now" Gallery and Current Exhibition Gallery.

A souvenir cover marking the museum's 20th anniversary is on sale in the museum. For enquiries, call the museum on 2849-7019.

The Police Museum issues a souvenir cover to mark its 20th anniversary