In the most advanced economies, the state bodies refer to the practice of the community policing in order to develop respect between police and citizens of particular city during collaboration at one particular project. In fact, nature of the communication and collaboration between these two parties is not simples as it is desired. The most common problem in reference to the formation of public perception of the performance of police officers is lack of trust and respect to the actions of this executive office. Hong Kong Police Force is not an exclusion beyond the fact that it has surpassed transformation of the internal organizational structure. There are some reasons preceding formation of the negative perception of the activity of the Hong Kong Police Force where lack of timely provision of assistance may be considered a reason of disregard. This paper aims to consider reasons of low satisfaction of people in Hong Kong region with performance of the police officers.
Keywords: Hong Kong Police Force, level of satisfaction, distrust.
Table of Contents
Abstract 2
Chapter One. 10
Introduction. 10
1.1. Introduction. 10
1.2. Historical Background. 10
1.4. Rationale of the Study. 12
1.5. Research Question. 13
1.6. Research Objectives. 14
1.7. Structure. 14
Chapter Two. 16
Literature Review.. 16
2.1. Introduction. 16
2.2. Analysis. 16
2.3. Literature Review Gaps. 18
Chapter Three. 20
Methodology. 20
3.1. Introduction. 20
3.2. Research Strategy. 20
3.3. Research Method. 20
3.4. Data Collection Methods. 21
3.5. Limitations to the Study. 21
3.6. Conceptual Framework. 22
3.7. Sampling. 23
3.8. Ethical Concerns. 24
Chapter Four 25
Results. 25
4.1. Introduction. 25
4.2. Results of Primary Data Collection. 25
4.2. Results of Secondary Sources Data Collection. 29
Chapter Five. 35
Conclusion. 35
List of Tables
Table 1. Survey Questions
List of Figures
Figure 1: Do you think people’s satisfaction with the performance of Hong Kong Force is dropping?
Figure 2: Whether social media or news lead to the people’s satisfaction with the performance of Hong Kong Force is dropping?
Figure 3: Do you think that police officers lack trust in Hong Kong?
Figure 4: Are the police equitable in enforcement legal norms?
Figure 5: Do you think that reformation of the performance of the police department should be introduced?
Figure 6: Do you believe that trust of public in actions of the police officers is essential for its performance?
Figure 7. People’s Satisfaction with the Performance of the Hong Kong Police
Figure 8. Survey results
Figure 9. Level of Satisfaction with Hong Kong Police as Disciplinary Force since 2012
Chapter One
Introduction
1.1.Introduction
Trust of the citizens and their confidence in the police actions is believed to lead to effective communication and cooperation between police department and community (Hough et al., 2010). While numerous studies indicate that attitude of public towards actions of the police officers depend on the impact of external factors, only few papers examine actual process of the formation of the concept of public satisfaction and perception towards police department. Bearing this in mind, this paper aims to evaluate origins of the satisfaction of people with actions of Hong Kong police office. The current study focuses on the place of the satisfaction of people of different social groups age in Hong Kong communication. Understanding the nature and essence of the elements forming part of the public satisfaction is essential for further transformation of the performance of the police department in Hong Kong. In addition, the office of the Census & Statistics Department claims that population of China and Hong Kong will double in the nearest future (Census & Statistics Department, 2010). Based on this information, one should agree that opinion of more than 7 million people living in Hong Kong will be essential for maintenance of the legal order and stability (Census & Statistics Department, 2010). Otherwise, there is a risk of development of public turmoil and revolt in the city.
1.2.Historical Background
Over the last few years, the role of the Hong Kong police has been drastically changed in the modern community (Choi, 2014). The reasons of this shift lie in the internal reorganization of the enforcement agency of the Hong Kong that took place before and after the Second World War (Choi, 2014). Before this time, the police were not popular enough in the region as the residents of the city did not believe in capability of the enforcement agency to solve numerous questions pertaining to the promotion of the legal order and security. With that, in 1967 the colonial government decided to introduce reforms of the Royal Hong Kong police with a purpose to advance its development on the right track for the benefits of the local people and other parties concerned (Choi, 2014).
There is a vivid necessity to transform operation of Hong Kong Police Force in order to raise satisfaction of people with performance of the executives. When the United Kingdom was responsible for operation of Hong Kong region, its state bodies had sufficient experience and resources in order to advance reformation of the police department. Given this fact, the Royal Office was provided with legal capacity to enter new relations with community in Hong Kong in pursuit of better connections between police and members of society in Hong Kong (Choi, 2014). The first step of transformation of the Royal Office was performed by formation of the relevant institution responsible for Junior Police Call that had to deliver services of the Police Public Relations Branch (Lau, 2004). According to Choi (2014), the government aimed to develop trustful connection with local community in form of the collaboration with the ICAC since 1970s so to alleviate corruption in Hong Kong region.
Consequently, in 1980s and 1990s the Royal Hong Kong Police Force was imposed with an obligation to prevent genuine crimes concerning illegal actions of the military forces (Lau, 2004). At the same time, people were confident enough in capability of the police officers to keep legal order (Choi, 2014). Hence, the status of the police department has been improved, while people were eager to express more support and confidence to the police officers (Choi, 2014). In turn, in the 1990s, the chief of the police decided to transform internal structure of the department and new values for officers were introduced (Choi, 2014). Since that time all officers were requested to act in preservance of service, social stability, transparency in their actions, while head of the department valued quality of employment relations with the executives (Choi, 2014).
1.3.Significance of the Research
Over the last few years, residents of Hong Kong reported that Hong Kong Police Force did not provide quality services to the people of the region (Census & Statistics Department, 2010). This fact threatened performance of Police Force and undermined safety of the local community (Choi, 2014). Among the reasons of low satisfaction of people with effective performance of the Hong Kong Police Force, scholars report abuse of powers in expression of unnecessary forces against participants of the protests, ongoing resistance to the actions of the civilians, political oppression and selective enforcement of the measures (Census & Statistics Department, 2010). Therefore, the Hong Kong Police Office gained status of the political body used by the state officials in the desired dimension (Census & Statistics Department, 2010). According to the recent survey and statistics of the IPCC, there is a rising flow of complains against performance of the police department that should be taken into account by the national government (Census & Statistics Department, 2010). From this perspective, this paper aims to consider if certain actions may be taken as for now in order to improve performance of the police officers and raise level of satisfaction of the people with the activity of this institution.
In the meantime, the importance of the paper to the research area is supported by the following reasons. First of all, the nature of confidence of people in Hong Kong region towards performance of the police department has been scarcely investigated by the scholars. This gap in the research area leaves knowledge void so that it should be filled in by current and future investigations. The other reason to the investigation of the performance of the police department in Hong Kong region and level of public satisfaction lies in the fact that during protests and demonstrations, police is requested by the national government to resist arrests for several concerns, while people accepted resilience of the executives as inability to keep order in the community. Therefore, this paper seeks to respond if there are any alternative solution in order to upraise status of the Hong Kong Police as Disciplinary Force.
1.4. Rationale of the Study
The rationale for the accomplishment of this paper lies in the importance of the resolution of the umbrella issue. There is a strong connection of the umbrella movement with the people of Hong Kong. The conflict with police and civilians has become more serious since the beginning of the umbrella movement because the means used by the police to disperse the protesters were not accepted by the public, such as the use of tear gas, and the conflict between citizens and the police during the umbrella movement (Adorjan & Lee, 2016). Until now it has not ended such as the case of seven pertains to the operation of seven police departments and units as follows: Hong Kong Fire Services Department (HKFSD), Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF), Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department (C&E), Immigration Department (IMMD), Hong Kong Correctional Services Department (HKCSD) and independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) (Adorjan & Lee, 2016). They all are all high recognition form citizen and front line Hong Kong disciplinary force. However, it is not evident on the reason behind difference in disciplinary force between HKFSD and HKPF. In addition, the conflict between the public and the police has become the most controversial topic in the society in recent years. Many media reports may have heightened the conflict between the public and the police because some newspapers tend to support the police while others tend to support the public. This has led to more controversies in the society with two obvious opposing points where police should perform its functions as decent executive body and keep preference of the community as its support is needed for effective performance (Adorjan & Lee, 2016).
1.5.Research Question
For the purposes of this paper, all data collection methods and research strategy aim to find responses as to the impact of different factors on the formation of the public perception of the actions of the police officers in Hong Kong region. In this respect, there are following research questions:
1. What is the nature of the collaboration between police department and community?
2. What is community policing and why it is important for maintenance of the stable relations between people and police officers?
3. What are the opportunities and perspectives in rising satisfaction of people with Hong Kong Police performance in the region?
4. What are the correlations between formation of public satisfaction and performance of the Hong Kong police?
All these issues are critical for investigation of the scope and nature of satisfaction of the people with performance of the police department in the region.
1.6.Research Objectives
Research objectives arise out of the research questions that have been stated above. Given background of the investigation, there are following research objectives to be considered:
To determine reasons of formation positive or negative public perception of the actions of the police officers;
To define if there is any opportunity to increase level of satisfaction of the people with performance of Hong Kong Police Force;
To measure if news agencies contribute to dissatisfaction of people with activity of Hong Kong police;
To examine role of community policing in the formation of trustful relations between the police officers and ordinary people living in the region.
1.7.Structure
This research paper consists of logically structured and connected parts. This first paper describes background of the research, its importance and contribution to the research area. In turn, the following part of the research is Chapter Two “Literature Review” which contains an overview of the available studies in the research area focused on the investigation of the process of the formation of public perception towards performance of the police department. Chapter Three discusses methodology which may be used in future studies for receipt of the similar results. Chapter Four analyzes primary and secondary which has been processed in response to the research questions. Chapter Five is limited to main conclusions and recommendations for future studies.
Chapter Two
Literature Review
2.1. Introduction
This part of the paper contains an overview of the available studies that have been previously performed by the scholars in reference to the dependence of satisfaction of people towards performance of the police officers. In fact, literature assessment revealed that there is lack of studies focused on the effectiveness of the actions of the police department in Hong Kong region as to the prosecution of crime.
2.2. Analysis
Several studies confirm importance of any connection between police and public as it should determine police effectiveness in prosecution of crime and prevention of any case of disorder. According to Hinds and Murphy (2014), people pretend to support police as they are considered legitimate. The current research literature shows that procedural justice is perceived a determinant in public assessments of the police effectiveness. With that, overview of the available studies in this part of the paper aims to define theoretical background on the factors affecting public satisfaction of the police officers regarding their performance in Hong Kong region. In fact, scholars have not paid enough attention earlier to the investigation of the scope of the cooperation between people in Hong Kong and officers in police department. There are several studies of survey collection regarding evaluation of the attitude of the citizens regarding actions of the police officers. Focus of the investigation is limited to the consideration of the place of such factors as demographic variables, individual preferences, neighborhood characteristics and personal perceptions of the police officers with regard to the nature of the collaboration between people and police department.
According to Thomas and Hyman (1977), there are certain demographic variables that affect formation of the attitude towards performance of the police officers (p. 307). These scholars note that race plays a crucial role in the expression of the low satisfaction with police services (Thomas and Hyman, 1977). Namely, minority status implies association with low quality police services because executives may act in preservance of the alienation towards one ethical in appreciation of the status of the others (Weitzer, 2000).
According to Hardin (2017), police officers decided to act out of the legal norms in order to execute legislative and executive powers. However, it is presumed that the police officers should be capable to find correct communication with residents of the region. In this respect, proper respect should be given to such values as education, training in pursuit of the acceptance of the internal transformation of the community. Following this statement, DeNita R. Square – Smith (2017) believes that satisfaction of people with performance of the police officers grounds on the proper training of the staff members.
Scholars insist that level of satisfaction of public community with performance of Hong Kong depends on the popularity of the community policing. According to Lau (2004), community policing is problematic in Hong Kong as its developers refer to the experience of the Western countries, while national environment should be taken for consideration. After colonization of Hong Kong by the United Kingdom in 1841, the last piece of community policing was present in 1995. However, these results are not sufficient as it has not established strong connection between people and police officers. In the meantime, analyzing place and role of community policing in Hong Kong region is essential for identification of social division among people in the region. In particular, one group of people supports institutionalization of Hong Kong police force, while the other resists to it. Absence of coherence in position of Hong Kong population prevents positive satisfaction of the public community with performance of the police department (Lau, 2004).
Apart from the role and contribution of the community policing in the formation of the public perception of the activity of Hong Kong Police Force, there are other factors preceding appearance of low satisfaction. According to Wong (2010). According to scholar, the most complaints of the residents of Hong Kong region arises out of the police procedures violations, impolite conduct, unnecessary use of authority, threat fabrication of evidence, other numerous offences (Wang, 2010). In addition, Wong (2010) emphasizes the people prefer to file their complaints to the police departments, while CAPO is responsible for consideration of the cases of police misconduct. In the meantime, this finding is quite essential for development of future reformation plan concerning operation of the police department in the region. Therefore, the study accomplished by Wong (2010) is a valuable contribution of the assessment and measurement of performance of the police department based on which it is possible to conclude that Hong Kong Police Department has awesome and pervasive powers.
Special attention is paid by scholars to the investigation of the role of social media in formation of the public opinion of police department activity. According to Lee, Clement & Leung (2015), social media produces different effects on all social groups as to the development of the personal attitude to the performance of the police officers (p. 366). With that, availability of political news at Facebook increases support of people to the performance of the police officers and government. Based on these results, scholars predict that Gen Xers people will refer to the news presented in social media as valuable sources of information (p. 378). This finding is important in view of the fact that the popularity of the social media will tend to rise, while it is reported to perpetuate actual state of affairs (Gil de Zuniga, Jung & Valenzuela, 2012). One may presume that efficiency of police department may be politically biased in social media in order to diffuse support and trust of people to the activity of this executive body (Lee, Clement & Leung, 2015).
Apart from the previous research, it is highly important to note results received by Adorjan and Lee (2016). According to them, measuring conceptualization of the police department by the residents of particular region and evaluation of the actions of the police will share the scope of integration and communication between these parties (p.2). In this respect, Hong Kong is regarded as the most interesting case for investigation of the role of several factors in determination of the satisfaction of people with performance of Hong Kong police department. This is justified by the fact that Hong Kong passed king term of evolution of this institution results in increased division of residents in their opinions and satisfaction with performance of the police over the last few years (p. 2).
2.3. Literature Review Gaps
During selection of the available studies on the determination of the reasons behind formation of the satisfaction level of public community towards performance of Hong King Police Force, some gaps in research are have been found. Actually, there is limited number of studies focused on the measurement of the level of satisfaction with Hong Kong Police Force among all social groups, while previous studies involved discussion of the perceptions of elder people. Given this fact, current research and future studies should aim to fill this gap in the research area. The other literature review gap lies in the absence of sufficient amount of studies discussing role of the media reporting in damaging status of the police as reputable and effective executive body in Hong Kong region. Therefore, future studies should focus on the role of media reporting as a reason behind low satisfaction of public with performance of the police department in the region. Finally, there is an evident scarcity for researches performed in reference to the state of public order in Hong Kong, activity of local state bodies. From this perspective, one should anticipate that this tendency will change as Hong Kong draws more and more interest of the investigators as economic “miracle” and progressive center dictating rules for the behaviour of the individuals.
Chapter Three
Methodology
3.1. Introduction
Selection of the methodology is one of the most important parts of the research paper. Appropriateness of the use of the research method leads to effective data collection and investigation of the subject – matter of the paper from different perspectives. This part of the paper outlines rationale for use of surveys as primary means of data collection based on which it is possible to measure definite attitude of the people to the actions of the police officers in Hong Kong.
3.2. Research Strategy
Research strategy covers all primary components of the research study including research topic and perspectives, design and methods. For the purposes of this paper, quantitative survey is perceived as one element in the mix of the research methods that are involved in the data collection of the primary and secondary information. Quantitative survey is a widely used method which allows to determine position of high number of people involved in the research investigation. In addition, expansion of the popularity of the online sites and digital innovations provides access to relatively simply and cheap means for data processing of the results.
3.3. Research Method
This particular study is performed with use of qualitative research methods and interpretative research strategy. Among all variety of the research methods, use of the qualitative survey appears to be the most effective method for investigation of the attitude of the people to the performance of the police officers in Hong – Kong region. To answer the proposed research question, the author of this study will employ method of distribution of surveys and their collection among residents of Hong Kong.
3.4. Data Collection Methods
The sampling frame should consist of any person living in Hong Kong over the last five years. In addition, sampling does not set any limitation as to the age of the person as requesting any person for participation would produce a diverse group of the results. Accordingly, the most appropriate mean of data collection is survey as a primary data collection approach, where opinion of the residents of Hong Kong is taken for consideration. Consequently, the content analysis is applied with a purpose to determine if opinion of the scholars concede with position of the residents of the city towards performance of the police department in maintenance of the legal order in the region.
3.5. Limitations to the Study
There are numerous limitations hindering successful accomplishment of this research paper. In fact, in the beginning of the paper, a person may be aware of the assumptions and delimitations, while identification of the limitations can not be complete as several challenges appear during accomplishment of the study. Hence, the first limitation is referred to the sample size of the paper. In fact, language barrier has become a problem when inviting people to respond to survey in English as this language is not commonly used in the city. In addition, the second limitation was lack of time to be used for data collection and processing of the results. This limitation was addressed by use of digital innovations for processing of the results to survey in order to maximize available time for accomplishment of this paper. The last and the most important limitation appeared in form of lack of trust in the desire of the person to measure and evaluate level of satisfaction of people with performance of the police department in the region.
3.6. Conceptual Framework
In the research will use up to 40 results of the surveys that are obtained from people living in Hong Kong. There are 15 questions based on which, an investigator intends to measure current attitude of the police officers to the performance of Hong – Kong Police office. All questions are open – ended so that any participant has to respond “Yes” or “No”. Therefore, participants were asked to share their opinion as to the following questions which are provided in Table 1 below:
Table 1. Survey Questions
Questions
Responses
1. Do you live in Hong Kong for more than 3 years?
a) Yes
b) No
2. Do you think people’s satisfaction with the performance of Hong Kong Force is dropping?
a) Yes
b) No
3. Whether social media or news lead to the people’s satisfaction with the performance of Hong Kong Force is dropping?
a) Yes
b) No
4. Do you find that the police acting lawful in the exercise of their duties and responsibilities?
a) Yes
b) No
5. If the police are effective in resolution of the social problems?
a) Yes
b) No
6. Are the police officers acting in support of the cooperative partnership with the community?
a) Yes
b) No
7. Do you think that public reports less crime and disorder nowadays?
a) Yes
b) No
8. Do you have fear of crime in the region?
a) Yes
b) No
9. Are the police equitable in enforcement legal norms?
a) Yes
b) No
10. Are the police fair in discussion and application of the services?
a) Yes
b) No
11. Do you feel any discrimination in the actions of the police officers?
a) Yes
b) No
12. Do you think that the police officers present good manners during cooperation citizens?
a) Yes
b) No
13. Do you think that police officers lack trust in Hong Kong?
a) Yes
b) No
14. Do you think that reformation of the performance of the police department should be introduced?
a) Yes
b) No
15. Do you believe that trust of public in actions of the police officers is essential for its performance?
a) Yes
b) No
Source: (Author, 2018)
3.7. Sampling
For the purposes of this paper, special sampling has been developed. Given the scope of the research to Hong Kong region, 100 people have been invited to give their responses to the survey questions which should be used further for determination of the reasons behind low satisfaction rates towards Hong Kong police force. There is no limitation on age, race or social status of the person as survey is open for every individual approving his participation and processing of the results for academic purposes. In fact, 100 people may be considered a small sample size for determination of the general position of the people in Hong Kong regarding performance of the local police department. However, this paper will show research strategy that might be used in the future for accomplishment of new studies with bigger sample size.
3.8. Ethical Concerns
With a purpose to overcome challenges concerning use of the personal information for this particular research, all participants have been requested to sign ethical form with their consent to use private information and disclose it in aggregated manner. Moreover, researcher has reassured participants of the research that there is no purpose to be concerned with the fact that their responses will be not personalized or disclosed with use of any personal information.
Chapter Four
Results
4.1. Introduction
This part of the paper contains an overview of the results given by the participants of the survey conducted in Hong Kong. The outcomes of primary data collection are considered align with findings of the scholars discussing satisfaction of the people of police activity in Hong Kong region. Depending on the final outcomes of this alignment, conclusions are developed for the next chapter. Processing of the results in this section is needed in order to determine connection between level of satisfaction of people with performance of the police officers and external factors affecting public perception.
4.2. Results of Primary Data Collection
All responses of the participants to the survey has been processed and analyzed in response to the research questions. As it has been stated in the third part of this paper, attitude of the people to the performance of Hong Kong Police Officers has been measured from the responses of the residents living in this region for more than 3 years. In this respect, there is no need to provide imaginary results to the first question of survey as it amounts to 100%. In turn, it has appeared quite interesting to prove opinion developed by Lau (2004) that people of Hong Kong region have dramatically different attitude to the performance of the police department in the region. In Figure 1, there is a reflection of the results to the question on current tendency among people in providing trust to the Hong Kong Police:
Figure 1: Do you think people’s satisfaction with the performance of Hong Kong Force is dropping?
Source: (Author, 2018)
According to the results of the primary data collection, one should agree that the position of the Hong Kong police among people of the region is weak. They do not believe it is effective. Moreover, it’s poor visibility of the successes of this executive body forces people to think that the performance of this political institution is dropping. An analysis of the results of these questions provides response to Research question #1 in part where it is asked: “What is the nature of the collaboration between police department and community?”. Residents of Hong Kong region do not believe that they should provide any resistance or be source of support to this institution in view of its inability to resist to the orders of the national government and terminate any violent behaviour at once it appears.
Figure 2: Whether social media or news lead to the people’s satisfaction with the performance of Hong Kong Force is dropping?
Source: (Author, 2018)
Accordingly, in Figure 2 participants to survey agree that social media affects their perception of the performance of Hong Kong Police Force as social media and news become the most popular means of communication. With that, residents reported that they have never asked themselves if the nature of the news shared within social media are truthful or not. This area of research should be improved and filled in with new studies where empirical analysis should confirm if there is a connection between media portrayal of the state bodies in social media and public attitude to this institution (Cheung, 2009).
Figure 3: Do you think that police officers lack trust in Hong Kong?
Source: (Author, 2018)
In turn, Figure 3 provides an understanding to the fact that public community believes that police department has extensive support in community and strong enough. However, these results only reaffirm that people are not involved in community policing activities in Hong Kong region as local government does not refer to this option in order to appraise status of this executive institution. Above figure brings the light to the research question: “What is community policing and why it is important for maintenance of the stable relations between people and police officers?”. This statement should be understoo
