Some Small Examples of Police Corruption in Hong Kong

Nowadays, the police in Hong Kong are paid a very good wage - and this makes corruption far less likely. There is also have a very strong Independent Commission Against Corruption... It's almost like you are guilty unless you can prove yourself innocent. But in the bad old days, the ordinary copper didn't even earn enough to live on properly. They had to take graft just to eat and pay rent.

Selling back the evidence

Drug Raid:

Police officers would seize opium pipes in a raid. The pipes would be presented as evidence in the criminal courts. After sentencing, the magistrate would order the opium pipes to be destroyed.

However, there are opium pipes and opium pipes. New ones were cheap but old, well-seasoned pipes were valuable...

The old opium pipes could be sold back to the drug dens as they were highly prized: Old pipes tasted sweet and smooth, while new pipes would taste raw and rough. Years of smoking by many addicts insured that the wooden stem was saturated with the oils from the ancient narcotic.

One European police inspector I knew in Hong Kong would immediately carve his initials on any opium pipes he seized - so his men couldn't substitute new pipes for them and sell off the old ones. This made him unpopular with his men because in those days, the police constables did not earn enough to live on. They had to earn extra money somehow.

Porno Movie Raid:

The 8mm film projector and dozens of reels of film would be seized. After sentencing the magistrate would order the films destroyed. So dozens of film cans would go to the incinerators... The films could be anything... Mickey Mouse cartoons even. The real blue movies could be sold back to the criminals who'd buy another projector and set up again in another street.

Accepting 'Tea Money' or "Fragrant Oil':

I used to converse regularly with a Chinese constable who was attached to Wanchai police station. In those days I lived in Hennessy Road, Wanchai. In a block of flats above a motorcycle shop which sold Suzuki motorcycles.

The young police constable spoke perfect English. Yet in the days when English-speaking constables wore red patches on their shoulders to show they spoke English, this cop had a black felt patch behind his silver service number. I asked him why he didn't have a red patch...

If I pass the English test, he explained, he would be kept inside the police station to talk to any European members of the public... "And if I am in the station, how can I earn any money?"

It was common practice for the ordinary beat policemen to go door to door to each of the illegal establishments they knew of, and accept a handout of maybe ten dollars. This was how they had enough to feed their families. And this was why so much crime was allowed to flourish.

In Hong Kong, a kickback or bribe is known as cha chin (tea money) or heung yuen (fragrant oil). So it would be like, "Here. Take some 'tea money' and stop pestering me." Or it might be, "Here is some 'Fragrant Oil" to smooth the path for my application..."

One of the big sources of corruption in Hong Kong was with the mini-buses which suddenly appeared on the streets in the late 1960s.

They were not licensed to carry passengers, but the police tolerated them as long as they paid squeeze money. It was highly organised. The drivers paid up every week and were issued with a new Disney cartoon decal to place on their windscreens. Only the drivers and the police officers knew that this picture of Donald Duck or Mickey Mouse meant they had paid their fees for the week.

The top man in the scheme, Ian Godber, fled to England when he realised the authorities were about to arrest him. But he was extradited and sent to prison in Hong Kong. I sat through his trial and reported the proceedings for the local commercial radio station.