Police and Society

Course Coordinator: Dr Grace Au, BA, MSocSc, MPil, PhD (CityU)

Course Developers: Charles Foley; Dr K C Wong, Dr K C Wong, Dr Garland C M Liu and Prof. John Murray

LESM A202 is one of the compulsory courses of the Certificate, Diploma, Higher Diploma, Bachelor of Social Sciences and Bachelor of Social Sciences (Hons) programme in Law Enforcement and Security Management. The course will also be interesting to other students in the Social Science programme who would like to broaden their knowledge of the inter-relationship between the institution and operation of policing, and the various facets and processes of society in general and in the Hong Kong context in particular. The course takes an interdisciplinary approach by drawing on knowledge from sociology, political science and criminology to review systematically and critically the relationship between the police and society in general and Hong Kong in particular. Learners are expected to have sufficient language skills to be able to study in English at tertiary level.

Aims
This course aims to provide learners with a systematic and critical review of the relationship between the police and society in general and Hong Kong in particular. Through the course, learners will be able to perceive the major issues including police power, culture, and its relationship with other social institutions and forces.

Contents
The course covers the following topics:

• The origin of Western policing
• The various roles and functions of the police in society
• The significance of policing within the criminal justice system
• The power of the police
• The issues of police accountability and misbehaviour
• Police culture
• Community policing and, finally the police relationship with the government, media, and other police forces

Learning support
There will be regular two-hour tutorials and day schools.

Assessment
There are five assignments and a final examination. Students are required to submit assignments via the Online Learning Environment (OLE).

Set book(s)
There are no set books for this course.