On the beat with Hong Kong’s highest-ranking colonial-era expatriate officer

Briskly walking down an office corridor at the Hong Kong police headquarters, a blond-haired uniformed officer energetically greets passing colleagues with a jovial “Wei hing dai!”, meaning “Hey, brother!” in Cantonese.

His office displays a kaleidoscopic collection of memorial coins and medals from law enforcement agencies worldwide, alongside a wall covered with pictures showing myriad police units, from frontline operations to the secretive VIP protection unit.

The officer was Assistant Commissioner David Jordan, 58, currently the highest-ranking expatriate policeman recruited during the colonial era still serving in the force this year.

Reflecting on his more than three-decade career, Jordan noted that public expectations regarding police service quality had risen over the years, encouraging a more empathetic policing approach. He urged officers to focus on empathy and on the “humanity aspects of policing” in frontline work.

“A lot of the time, people come into contact with police at their worst moments: they’ve been a victim of a crime [or] their friends have been a victim of a crime,” he said.

“We are there to investigate the criminal element of it, but we’re also their first port of call for reassurance.”