History of Hong Kong Police midnight on 1 July 1997, when China resumed sovereignty over Hong Kong, and the force reverted to the title "Hong Kong Police". Despite loyal and steadfast service and efficiency levels which have grown steadily over 160 years, life on the force has not always been rosy. No administration anywhere can ever claim to have been free of corruption in its varying forms and severity. The spectre of corruption became really prominent in Hong Kong in the 1960s; the Hong Kong Police—as did almost every government department—experienced this and it peaked between 1962 and 1974, involving officers of all ranks and
British Hong Kong Empire. In 1861, Governor Sir Hercules Robinson introduced the Hong Kong Cadetship, which recruited young graduates from Britain to learn Cantonese and written Chinese for two years, before deploying them on a fast track to the Civil Service. Cadet officers gradually formed the backbone of the civil administration. After the Second World War, ethnic Chinese were allowed into the service, followed by women. Cadets were renamed Administrative Officers in the 1950s, and they remained the elite of the Civil Service during British rule. The stability, security, and predictability of British law and government enabled Hong Kong to flourish as a