Stories from the Royal Hong Kong Police: Fifty accounts from officers of Hong Kong's colonial-era police force

An interesting book that covers about 50 years of police history in Hong Kong from different officers who served from the 1940s to the 1990s.

I bought this book as lived in HK for almost 7 years from the 90's, and knew a couple of guys in RHKP, expat., and Chinese. As admitted in the foreword to these tales, the quality is patchy. Some I found thoroughly interesting and well written, others were GCSE standard, and tbh, better the writers had not bothered, or had sought out advice from seasoned writers. (Worried me a tad that they reached 2 pip inspector level actually!) Nonetheless, the tales of the "Double 10" riots, and the Star Ferry riots I found if great interest, plus the account of the storming of the border post from the People's Republic, only relieved by the ever reliable Ghurkas and not a shot fired in anger. Worth buying but future readers be aware the uneven standard of story-telling.

A great insight to the challenges that the officers faced in the Royal Hong Kong Police force. It brought back memories from my time being born & raised there by my parents My father, a detective Chief Inspector in The Commercial Crime bureau. His service from 1957 to 81 included many fascinating escapades too. A thoroughly good read from start to finish. I even remember some of the officers, One lived above us in the Kowloon city married quarters. It has a vast range of stories from all departments. It was truly a remarkable city.

I read the book knowing Hong Kong and after some years as a former police Auxiliary in HK. The book gives the flavour of policing in HK. Some tales are fascinating. However some accounts are a little long and written like a police report rather than an exciting or interesting anecdote. Overall the book is a good read and I would recommend it to anyone interested in policing in HK in colonial times.

Like any collection of stories, the contents are variable. Some are very short - 'fact sheets'. Some appear rather mundane accounts of Police life in Hong Kong, but being about the 1950s, or even the late 1930s are very interesting in themselves. Some of the accounts, like that of the equipment in Traffic units, or the life of a CID team Inspector in Tsim Sha Tsui, or from the Legal Aid lawyer, are written with ironic (if not cynical) but usually self deprecating humour, adding to their interest and ability to 'set a scene' . The thought of interviewing all the fashion models who had been subject of a theft sticks in one's mind! Possibly some minor mistakes in nomenclature, and the odd discernable 'porkie', I doubt many will find it riveting, but well worth a read.