Public image of police in the age of social movement : explore the rationales behind young participants’ perceptions on the police force of Hong Kong

Abstract

This research study explores the rationales of young social movement participants in relation to their perceptions on the Hong Kong Police Force through employing a qualitative approach and conducting a focus group interview. In a historical view, the colonial government implemented a series of huge reform on the police force in mid-1970s for the sake of improving the perception of Hong Kongese towards them, considering their unacceptably worse reputation and public image at that period of time. The grand reform is considered as a big success in boosting the public image of the police force and their internal discipline, which turned the force to be one of the best police forces over the world as well as the ‘Asia’s Finest’ since 1980s. It should be noted that the ‘positive opinion’ of Hong Kongese on the police force were ranging from sixty to eighty-two percent starting from the year of sovereignty transfer until 2013, with the peak score of eighty-one-point-two percent in 2007. However, the ‘positive opinion’ has encountered drastic changes since 2014, in the meantime, the ‘negative opinion’ has started rocketing from the same year onwards. While the Umbrella Revolution and the Anti-Extradition Bill Movement have been suspecting as the main culprits of the drastically declining police public image, it is found that all informants (i.e. the young participants) of this study were holding negative perceptions on the police force, whereas news media, personal experience, and education attainment shall be the leading rationales influencing their perceptions. Moreover, it is also suggested the factors of police performance and behaviour, of trust to government, as well as of personal values should also be taken into consideration when touching on young participants’ rationales regarding their perceptions towards the police force.