CO129-561-10 Estimates 1938 2-9-1937 - 23-9-1938 — Page 172

+

130

HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

sides of the harbour. Turning to Appendix K being the Report of the Inspector General of Police for 1936, Table V shows the yearly Return of Crime for the whole Colony for 1936. The total Charge Cases under the Head of Serious Offences is 6,234 while under Minor Offences the number is 37,549, making a Grand Total of 43,783. In the category of Hawking Offences we have the formidable number of 26,075, or, roughly, 60% of the Grand Total. Assuming, Sir, that each of these hawking offences occupied an average of two minutes in a Police Court, this alone would account for 866 hours in the year, the equivalent of 144 6-hour days. The trial of Hawking Offences, therefore, may be said to have been a full time job for a single Magistrate for half of a working year. (I see that my honourable friend Mr. M. K. Lo has made calculations similar to mine, with this difference, that I have credited Magistrates with an extra hour's work per day). Admittedly, Sir, some of these were offences which must be dealt with by a Police Court. But for each of these there must be half-a-dozen which could have been met by a word of warning from the Police Officer in the Charge Room concerned, whose discretion could be relied on in such cases. However, I have heard that the large number of petty offences charged is due in great measure to the existence of what is known as a "Case Book", which constitutes a Police Constable's Record of Cases to his credit, and by which his chances of promotion are governed, the principle apparently being the more cases, the better the man. I have heard even, that fines are on occasion inflicted on officers whose case-books over a certain period show a blank. If this be correct, it is a system which cannot be too strongly condemned, for, while contributing unnecessarily to the work of Police Courts, it has the further and far greater disadvantage of being utterly wrong, in that it is directly contrary to the best conception of what constitutes a good policeman. In the 1912 Edition of Sir Howard Vincent's Police Code will be found the following, from an Address to Police Constables on their Duties, by the Late Right Hon. Lord Brampton, written specially for the book.

..the constable who keeps his beat free from crime deserves much more credit than the man who only counts up the number of convictions he has obtained for offences committed within it. It is true that the latter makes more show than the former, but the former is the better officer".

K

Making all due allowances for the difference in conditions in Hong Kong from those prevailing in England, I still fail to see any justification for a system which sets the discovery rather than the prevention of crime at a premium. One may well imagine the dangers attendant on such a system where a man of unscrupulous conscience is concerned, with opportunities such as this Colony affords by reason of its thousands of ignorant people. If this system does prevail, then, no matter for how long it has been in existence, I sincerely urge the proper authority seriously to consider putting an end to it, and to substitute therefor some other gauge whereby a police-officer's efficiency and his right to promotion may be measured. (Applause).

194