vikingsn1979 I am in touch with Tsui through WeChat ... he is retired and has a big police family

@@loedward1308 GOD BLESS YOU !

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bigbiketrip.net/2021/09/14/chapter-3-emergency-unit-yip-kai-foon-and-ak47s/

A shame the force was used the way it was in 2019 whilst still being led by British higher ranking officers. The sight of a full body armoured officer rugby tackling a 12 year old girl in her school uniform will never leave me.

@@RupertU Thanks for the reply, my old Force had an Inspector that had come back, Paul (Peter?) Jackson I think his name was. I've been to H.K a couple of times now on my travels around the Far East and I just find it all intriguing, the concept of coppering as 'we' know it, but somewhere very acutely not as 'we' know it. Very interesting times, to say the least!

@@dansvid1023 The unit I was in at that time was called Emergency Unit ( a sort of an armed Met SPG/Area Car/Trojan unit 999 response platoon). More experienced officers and probably one of best units in the force. We were in Kowloon West which was and probably remains the busiest district in Hong Kong. All of us were formerly in the Police Tactical Unit (Blue Berets). The clip above comes from a TV series called "Serve & Protect" (Canada TV) who followed us around filming for a week or so doing interviews, then went and filmed some other units in the RHKP. It followed the US "Cops" TV series format at the time and some of the full episodes can be found on You Tube if you search. There is also a very interesting TV series that was shown on BBC2 back in the 1970s called "The Hong Kong Beat". Quite dated and poor quality video, but it inspired me and many of my colleagues to join. From 1990 - 1993 I commanded my EU platoon of 70 officers (12 NCOs) and supported by a Station Sergeant (Ah Tsui at this time). During this time preceding the 1997 handover it was a bit "crazy" in HK and all of us, in whatever unit we were in (CID, Uniform, Specialist) had our work cut out. Each of the 12 cars + command car (Car 50) you see in video is crewed by a plain clothes officer, a sergeant, an advance driver, and a uniform crew member with quite a lot of emergency response kit and weapons, like Remington shotguns (later armed with 00 buck shot that we shot a few crims with and stopped them in their tracks), AR15 rifle (rarely used), smoke guns and grenades, and our personal revolver which got upgraded due to being outgunned for a few years by organised criminals with superior "PLA" Chinese military weapons they got from somewhere or another in mainland China. My platoon had been in involved in several open fires with goldsmith robbers and smugglers armed with AK47 (Chinese Type 56), Black Star pistols, PLS style BRVs, sub machine guns, and PLA issued grenades. We had quite a few gun battles that people today find hard to believe actually happened on the streets of HK, but it was almost a weekly occurrence and my boys were unfazed by it all. We shot a lot of crims and triads and none of my platoon got injured, except for glass shard cuts after 50 rounds were fired by "Tai Sui Jai" (lookout) with an AK47 into our Sham Shui Po car. During filming nothing much happened, and when the cameraman left we immediately had another series of open fire robbery much to the TV director's annoyance. In HK there are a lot of high rise buildings and police tactics mean we have to use the stairs for sweeps and raids and never use the lifts (if they had any) and I remember the poor TV chap struggling up 20 floors with his kit in 100% humidity and 35 degrees, and getting to the top as we were all piling out again. Exciting times and I miss it all.

@@RupertU Hi Rupert, did you have colleagues from Canada or Australia/NZ as well? I heard that the pay at HK was better than UK at that time, was that true?

Daniel C yes.. Canada, Australia, New Zealand ... and South Africa. My boss, Sean Healy, at the time of this video was from South Africa.

@@dansvid1023 I know of a Paul Jackson. I think he is in private sector doing computer forensics and Hi Tech investigations. I don't really know him, but if you didn't serve in the same region or unit, or train together you may only cross paths occasionally in a force of more than 30,000 officers.

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CommandoCaptain I wish I kept a cap or beret or epaulet but I didn’t . I didn’t keep any Metropolitan police uniform either. Always following rules ... except when I didn’t !!! I regret not buying the Officers Wilkinson Sword to commemorate 150 years anniversary of HK police .... was 7000 dollars for a personalised sword in mid 90’s which was too much for me at time. Probably a much sought after collectors piece ... alas none with “Senior Inspector of Police Utley” engraving...sadly.

I kept my cap badge, rank badges and other insignia; and also my whistle and lanyard. I keep meaning to get them mounted properly to display.

Thread Bear That’s good to hear

When did the HK police make the transition to open topped holsters for the S&W Model 10, and why do you think semi auto sidearms have not been adopted as general issue for all regular officer's other than in special units?

@@daddybeagleaz907 Quick answer: 1) About the time of this video in early 90s. 2) Cops break stuff and RHKP is huge and between shifts we needed a quick turnover and pistols need more maintenance than revolvers. Also the Model 10 was a good weapon. Long answer : When I was first posted to EUK/W in 1990 all uniform officers had the cross draw calvary style holsters on our weak side, and we drew across our chest . The revolver lanyard was attached to our Sam Browns. I remember the benefits and disadvantages of this old style arrangements when arresting a goldsmith robber at Hung Hom Bay (91/92?) after a car chase of the getaway car across Kowloon and by chance my vehicle (Car 50) was in the right place at right time and we blocked their escape and they panicked and reversed erratically and crashed the car into a bus stop injuring a member of the public. I chased on foot one of the robbers and confronted him at the ferry pier and he pointed a gun at me and just before I was about to open fire he dropped the gun and jumped in the sea and started to swim away. I seconded an old style sampan driven by a women in black hakka gear, caught him, keeled hauled him a bit underwater to subdue him (more effective than a knee to the neck I guess), and on the other side of the bay near the stadium I jumped into the sea up to my waist to restrain and arrest him and in doing so immediately dropped my .38 S&W revolver out of the flimsy holster into the sea, which I luckily hauled back out of the water by the lanyard, shook the water out of the barrell and chambers and carried on with the arrest. If I had lost the gun I would be in a whole heap of trouble. I dragged the robber to the shore where one of my TST EU cars was waiting and when we searched the robber he had a second pistol in his pocket and several different types of ammunition. !!! I still have some local press and SCMP, Standard newspaper cuttings and pictures of me standing on the bow of the small sanpan aiming my revolver at the hapless robber trying to swim away. Not long after this we were issued with 6 extra bullets (rounds) in a zip lock plastic bag and at this time my EUK/K No 1 Platoon responded to the Shui Hing Mahjong school robbery in Mong Kok where we had a major shoot out and were out gunned by the robbers who fire at us with Type 56 assault rifles (Chinese PLA AK47 ), some kind of high velocity machine gun, and stick grenades and hijacked a bus to escape... whilst lobbing grenades out the window. Regional crime squads and other crime units eventually arrested some of culprits which is a story for them to regale. During that gun battle one of my MK car drivers (Fan Siu - "Sweet potato" - was his nickname) exchanged fire and after firing all six rounds had to prize open the stupid plastic bag (some idiot desk wallah at PHQ thought this was a good idea), load whilst being shot at and using cover of engine block return more fire. We also used no.4 shot in Remington shotguns but to no avail as robbers had PLA military blastic helmets and vests. Our AR 15 rifles that we carried on board our cars were not allowed to be used in built up areas for fear of high velocity collatoral damage to public (AR15 is the semi automatic assault rifle issued to PTU and EUs) and so that was another turning point. I believe H&K MP5s are now issued to EU cars .. or were since I left. I imagine since the riots in 2019 tactics and weapons are changing and being updated very quickly. So coming to your question, it was sometime in 92/93 that the whole force changed to the quick draw (strong arm side) holsters (Canadian design I think) and we also got speed loaders that were in a small pounch on our belts. As a front line emegency response unit we did a lot of training in the use of new kit and often had exercises at Close Quarter Battle Range in NT on Training days where various situations and responses (room entries, tactics, deployment, cover) and also at the firing ranges which included video type shoot/dont shoot scenarios. The CQBR allowed us the train in the most realistic situations where we were hot, running about, tired, out of breath etc... whereas the ranges allowed us to hone our marksmanship principles and draw revolver safely and quickly. As for revolver vs pistol? Cops break things and revolvers are more cop proof. I imagine there is a procurement and maintenance cost too. Revolvers are drawn and returned to armoury three times a day and cleaning a revolver is much easier than disassembling and cleaning a pistol. Specialist units are likely to maintain and clean their weapons much like soldiers in the army. In the police shift changeover needs to be as quick as possible. That said various specialist units, SDU (lots of toys + funky sniper rifles), ASU, Specialist Marine units used Glocks and Brownings. Today, I really don't know what they are all issed with. I still go to shooting ranges when I am in South Africa (where I have a house) and especially when I am in USA where I use a Sig Sauer P226 that I like very much and remain quite good at groupings. However, these civilian ranges are not very realistic as a real shooting situation is usually very confusing, involves high stress, lots of exertion and not least a clear mind to determine whether legally, ethically and tactically you can open fire. The situation in Hung Hom was a situation where by Hong Kong law and police procedure I was authorised to open fire, but ethically I didn't and I still arrested him and I imagine he has been reflecting on the error of his ways for many years in jail. After EU my other postings were merely marking time until I left the RHKP in 1997. I studied for a criminology degree and started other self study and improvement across a broad range of things in preparation for a new chapter. Its lucky I was motivated to leave the RHKP. In fact, I was treated quite unfairly by the RHKP knitting circle on several occasions as some disliked maverick types like me .. but on the positive side I was offered and accepted a position to joined Big 5 professional services firm, Arthur Andersen in London and was immediately assigned to the Dormant Accounts and Holocaust Victims Forensic Acconting Investigation of Credit Suisse Group in Zurich. In fact I went on to be a Partner at Deloitte & Touche and Managing Director and head of Asia pacific for a international Consulting Firm.. So, probably a good thing to leave the HK police at the end of its heyday when it was Asia's Finest. Many locals and the few expatriates left in the HKP tell me its now a thankless job, highly politicised, not particularly well paid and no longer has the public supprt it did in my day. Woke society with intense media scrunity just doesnt get the hrd stuff done. Indeed, if I hadn't left at the handover I would not have done all the amazingly things since, such a my global motorcycling adventures, studying at Tinghua University, all the fascinating fraud investigation and intelligence projects, explored the world, formed my own company and made my fortune.

Prefer Gong Bao Ji Ding

I speak both - although my Mandarin is more fluent than my Cantonese

@RupertUtley Did you learn both languages after moving to Hong Kong? I've visited Hong Kong a few times in the last few years and they seem so difficult. Cantonese does sound quite nice - almost like they are singing or reciting a poem at times

@@sandeepk4093I studied Cantonese like all expat officers at the RHKP training school in 1987 and I learned Mandarin at Tsinghua University in Beijing between 2007and 2009 . Check out longer stories and pictures of RHKP on www.bigbiketrip.net

MrPieman00 - well I resigned and became a corporate investigator in 1997 and so I cannot give an accurate comparison. However, my colleagues who remained said that the force has changed a lot. Uniform is more utilitarian, albeit more scruffy. Corruption is creeping back into the police ranks because of many factors, including declining oversight, discipline and standards. Women are more involved in front line work which has mainly positive affects, but Cantonese women are generally very small and many jobs are very physical. If they pass the selection process on a level playing field for SDU, EOD and PTU then that's fine. The standards of physical fitness remain reasonably high in specialist units, but has declined considerably across the broader police force because organised sport and regular running events have decreased. Mess life for officers has declined, which is a bad thing because it was an opportunity and environment to get things off your chest and discuss matters with senior officers in an informal environment without too many repercussions!!!. Majority of Chinese never liked drinking much anyway and so as the force becomes predominantly “Chinese” social drinking has declined and the British officer culture is declining. There are only a few dozen expatriate officers left, and most are in latter stages of their careers and far from the operational front line. English standards has declined considerably. Mandarin standards haven't improved either which makes for a parochial police culture. My view, given I work in China nowadays and still live in Hong Kong, is that Hong Kong has missed an opportunity to differentiate itself from a rapidly developing China. The HK advantages of Rule of Law, English language, freedom of speech and press, low tax, free ports, an international city on shores of China has been squandered (IMHO). Hong Kong should have followed the Singapore model and become an international semi automous hi tech city. Anyway, I am proud to have served in the Royal Hong Kong Police and at the front line in challenging times and served with amazing officers ( especially these guys in EU K/W in this short video clip) - best job I ever had.

@@RupertU I m glad you stay with us.

Royal hk police was more convincing because of the Crown medal.

The Hong Kong Police nowadays are nothing but gangsters who beat up citizens with no remorse while not arresting the pro Communist forces in Hong Kong despite the pro Communists being so much more violent than the pro democracy protestors

Following up on background question and why I came to Hong Kong...... I was a constable in the Metropolitan police in early 80s and before that supported myself from 11 years old working on dairy farms in the English countryside I grew up in as my parents divorced and we were plunged into relative poverty, shame and social isolation. A bloody miserable time, especially at school until I was 16 and got a 49cc moped and found freedom. After school I should have joined the British military like my brother, but thought going to London would be an interesting escape and so I joined the police after my "A" levels when I was 18 years old. Because it was the early 80s in England with the miners strikes, rioting and terrorist bombings I had quite an eventful 5 years as a young man in London, but it was also quite boring at times and I was keen for more adventure. I did not really fit into any social strata in Britain being poor, effectively working class and being called Rupert with a posh accent. Neither fish nor foul. Always thought I should have been born in the early 19th century when adventuring in far flung places was at its height and so going to Britain's only remaining colony was highly appealing. When I joined the RHKP as an Inspector I had the chance to start again, learn from my mistakes, and chart a new course. I worked very hard at the training school, was exceptionally fit having boxed in the Met police and ran middle distance in the hills everyday. I knew the law well enough already as Hong Kong criminal law is largely the same as in the UK (note: most expatriate officers were new graduates and/or former military officers and there were surprisingly few former police from the UK like me). I was awarded Baton of Honour on passing out of training school that gave me a good start and I got posted to Kowloon City (of Walled City fame) and Tsim Sha Tsui police stations which I thoroughly enjoyed. I served under great bosses at both stations. I later passed the two week grueling selection to join Hong Kong's counter terrorism unit, SDU (flying tigers) but didn't get selected which I thought, and still think, was unfair. So, the next year I did the selection again, passed it, and still didn't get selected. I lost on a vote and was given some dubious reasons for not being selected despite passing and being told a did well. In reality its was a harsh lesson in "if the face don't fit" and mine evidently didn't. However, as one door closes and another one opens and I got posted to the Police Tactical Unit where my platoon won best platoon and later to Emergency Unit /Kowloon West..... the best police job ever. I was also in the Explosive Ordinance Disposal Cadre specializing in IEDs that I really enjoyed. Being a maverick character and not particularly inclined to desk work it was inevitable I would eventually run foul of the petty discipline regime and got "defaulted" for what was a genuine administration mistake at a time when my mind, body and soul was focused on more pressing matters at the front line like battling Yip Kai Foon and his goons who were armed with AK47s and grenades. About the time of this video clip. In fact, a subordinate, whom I delegated a routine duty roster admin task to, messed up, but as overall commander it was my responsibility and so I took the rap. Not much excuse for being in Penang when I should have been in Mong Kok! This soured my experience somewhat as nobody, least of all me likes being treated unfairly. Commendations in the pipeline for arresting armed robbers and commanding an EU platoon during a time when Hong Kong was beset with goldsmith robberies were withdrawn and this blot on my record pretty much scuppered any rapid promotion prospects and became an excuse for my detractors to impune my reputation. That said, I count myself lucky to have to worked in exciting units like Crime Squad, EOD, EU, PTU .... and thoroughly enjoyed being an instructor at the training school. I had an enjoyable and rather cushy posting at the training school that allowed me free time in evenings and weekends to study for a criminology degree that I got. However, at the time I was defaulted yet again for an off duty argument with a bunch of racist, unprofessional and overbearing local uniform officers who stopped me at a road block in Causeway Bay whilst riding my motorcycle.... for no reason. I could have handled the situation better, I admit, but it was a another career limiting lesson in keeping my mouth shut and turning the other cheek, especially when your testimony is going to be out numbered and you are defended by what is effectively the prosecution! Given the 1997 handover back to China and to my mind an unfair and unjust disciplinary record I left the police in 1997 and joined a Big 5 global accountancy firm where I became a forensic investigator and worked my way up the corporate ladder to partner level to lead forensic practices for various professional services firms in Asia Pacific. As well as learning accounting, intelligence analysis, specialist interviewing skills and risk management techniques I spent several years at Tsinghua University in Beijing studying Mandarin that I now speak, read and write reasonably well. In my private time I became an advanced paragliding pilot representing Hong Kong at world competitions, an RYA Ocean Skipper, advance open water scubadiver, and round the world motorcycling adventurer (see this KZfaq channel for videos of me and the missus riding in far flung places). Hong Kong is still my home and will continue to be, whatever happens. I am proud that I served in the Royal Hong Kong Police with honour and as a gentleman, treating people fairly and in accordance with law. I condemn violence, injustice, dishonesty and thuggery where ever it comes from... whether that is by triads, nationalists, police or black shirt rioters. Despite a few dips, doing the right thing and sticking to my guns has served me well. www.bigbiketrip.net

The S/Sgt before Tsui was better and more loyal . The CIP Was a steroid loser

I was in Met and RHKP and I feel both have declined in standards - but then I would say that wouldn’t I

Whatever the faults of British empire, one thing that cannot be denied is that the British have superior governance (rule of law, impartial judges, good government, relatively low levels of corruption). That's why practically all former British colonies are the most desirable places to live (in my opinion)

@@sandeepk4093 Which hand did you use to wipe your bum. TALKING FROM YOUR ARSE ???!!!! NO REPLIES READ.

The British brought law, administration and science to the world. Some went on to learn and develop like Malaysia and Singapore - and some collapsed like Zimbabwe and Kenya. China learned a lot from Hong Kong and HK remains a great place because of the British heritage - most HK Chinese agree

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yes .. this is 1990-1994 when I was platoon commander in Emergency Unit Kowloon West (RHKP)... a very busy period. Lot of goldsmith robberies and gun battles.

wow so cool :)

@@RupertU out of politics but how would you describe HK at that time? Were Gun Battles that serious? Would be happy to get an answer from you. Thanks in advance

@@NanatsukiBenio yes at the time this video was taken the RHKP and in particular the Emergency Units were constantly battling armed robbers armed with Type 56 (Chinese AK47s) and Black Star pistols and grenades.

@@RupertU so HK at the time of your service was dangerous battlefield among police and triads... that's sad but I am glad that you are standing for justice and honour. Also of course Hong kong should be peaceful so our opinions here are same .

All Empires collapse - but the British was the greatest in history - eclipsing the Roman, Ottoman, and all others

Well, I joined with Ben, Guy, Mike, Simon, David, Steve, Malcolm, Gus and Stewart and all are still alive as far as I know although several I haven’t seen for a long time … www.bigbiketrip.net has my story in RHKP

6 decades ago

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Whole story at this site bigbiketrip.net/2021/06/23/royal-hong-kong-police-chapter-1/

​@@RupertU您好，我是广东新移民，你还能公正评价香港吗？如2019事件？

Relative to what?

Maybe - you tell me

Utley sir, Long long time no see You may guest who I am 😊 I am in the CQBR photo. I ever participated in tackling most of the armed robbery cases when you was the PLN CDR in EUKW.