Hong Kong’s police force has seen a rise in applications, although its vacancy rate remains at around 17 per cent, the city’s security minister has said.
In a written response to lawmaker So Cheung-wing, Secretary for Security Chris Tang said on Wednesday that the police force was “no exception” to the city’s protracted manpower crunch.
However, Tang added that authorities “notice a rise in the number of people applying to join the [Hong Kong Police Force] in recent years, showing that the recruitment strategies mentioned above are effective.”
In the current financial year ending March 31, 2026, the force aims to recruit 130 probationary inspectors and 1,140 police constables, he added.
9 lids, 10 pots
As of March 31, there were a total of 33,090 police posts, but only 27,325 were filled, according to official figures.
That amounted to a 17.4 per cent vacancy rate, which Tang said was similar to figures over the past three years.
He said the 5,765 vacancies in the police force were mostly among the rank and file, with a shortfall of 5,500 junior officers. Separately, there were 236 vacancies for inspectorate officers and 29 for officers at the rank of superintendent or above.
So also asked Tang why the force planned to hire only 1,270 officers when it had “nine lids to cover 10 pots.”
Tang replied that the police force had received some 12,000 applications but “focuses on quality over quantity in recruitment.”
Addressing lawmaker Michael Tien’s concerns about the fraught relationship between some of the city’s youth and the police, the security chief said that most young people had realised they had previously been misled by “fake news.”
He cited a poll suggesting that respondents aged 18 to 29 rated the police force 53.6 points on a 100-point scale, up from 38.9 in 2021.
The police force’s recruitment arm – the Police University Recruitment Express (PURE) – was extended in recent years to universities in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong province to recruit Hong Kong students studying in mainland China.
PURE was further expanded in December to begin recruitment at overseas universities.
Police officers must be permanent residents of Hong Kong.
