Unrest takes toll on police recruitment

Michael Shum

More than 400 police officers quit the force during the anti-fugitive bill unrest while new recruits fell 40 percent year on year, the security bureau told lawmakers.

A written reply from the bureau to the Legislative Council's finance committee showed there were 446 "unanticipated leavers" - excluding retirements and those leaving their posts as expected - between June and February, a surge from the same period the year before.

"From June 2019 to February 2020, the number of officers not anticipated to leave the service was 446, representing an increase of 38.5 percent," the bureau said.

"Their reasons include resignation during training, early retirement, family and personal reasons," it said.

The force also saw recruitment application numbers drop by almost 42 percent.

Applications for inspector jobs plunged from 7,350 last year to 4,709 this year, a drop of almost 36 percent, while that for constable positions fell from 10,578 to 6,138, dropping almost 42 percent.

The force failed to achieve a recruitment target of 195 probationary inspectors, with only 136 accepted compared to 220 last year.

It also only accepted 630 constable applicants after taking 1,121 last year - a drop of around 44 percent. The target was 1,620.

However, despite the drop, the force's manpower remains unaffected. The number of police officers, estimated at 35,863 as of March 31, saw a slight increase from 35,611 officers last year.

Of newly recruited constables, 45 percent hold a Yi Jin Diploma, 15 percent were secondary school graduates, and 22 percent were graduates of tertiary institutions. Meanwhile, all probationary police inspectors are degree holders or above.

The reply from the bureau also showed that a police officer can receive about HK$16,000 in overtime a month.

"In 2019-20, as of February 29, 2020, the total expenditure on overtime allowance was about HK$2.06 billion. On the basis of an average of approximately 12,000 recipients per month, the monthly overtime allowance received per officer would be about HK$16,000," it said.

"It was mainly due to the public order events taking place in Hong Kong since early June. Many of these events turned into serious violent and unlawful activities," it continued.

"Police officers had to handle massive violent acts in various districts on one hand and continue to maintain routine police work and daily public services on the other A large number of police officers had to carry out their duties for long hours since June and therefore, the expenditure on overtime allowance increased."