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Friday, November 17, 2017, 18:03
Ethnic minorities boon for police force
By Wang Yuke in Hong Kong
Friday, November 17, 2017, 18:03 By Wang Yuke in Hong Kong

A Filipino officer tells Wang Yuke how his background, including his knowledge of Tagalog, aided his mission of helping others through his police work.

The Pakistani shopkeeper had been burgled but he didn’t know what to do; he couldn’t speak enough Cantonese to explain to police what had happened — until a Pakistani officer showed up on a routine monthly patrol.

Victims with ethnic minority backgrounds often are at a loss giving information to police when reporting crimes. They’re more candid with officers of similar ethnic minority background. That’s why officers of different national backgrounds are critical to policing Hong Kong.

Constable Hung Ka-wai, in recalling the story, said it had been two months before police even heard about the burglary at the shop. By then, it would have been difficult to track down the culprit. Police advised the man to install better security in his shop. 

Policing for the 6 percent

“We have police of various ethnic minority origins at almost every district, especially where there are large ethnic minority populations. The demand (for ethnic minority police) is apparent, considering there’re nearly 460,000 ethnic minority people living in the city (constituting over 6 percent of the population),” remarked Hung.

There are no specific records revealing the number of people from ethnic minorities in the civil service. The Civil Service Bureau can draw only a general picture, based on face to face contact during recruitment. Based on that information they say that over the past five years, about 50 ethnic minority job applicants were offered appointments to the police force; a further 10 were appointed as Assistant Officer II in the Correctional Services Department.

Helping hand 

Dean Jason Escuro’s family comes from the Philippines. He joined the Hong Kong Police Force a couple of years ago, when he was 23. He’s handled emergencies from robbery and theft to violent domestic abuse and suicide. “I have been passionate about helping people in need since I was a boy. That’s part of the reason I wanted to be a police officer,” said Escuro, an otherwise reserved young man who becomes quite talkative when speaking about his passion for police work. He was still in secondary school when he joined the police training program. He was intrigued after his introduction, and so entered the Hong Kong Police College after graduating from high school. Escuro thinks his ethnic minority identity is an advantage at work. 

Dean Jason Escuro (second right) worked his way to becoming one of a few police officers of ethnic background. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Stand out at work

He had been in the force for less than a week when he was called to a family dispute. “A woman called in, in panic. She screamed, ‘My husband hit me…he scolded me and then beat me…I need help,” he recalled. The woman was a Filipina and her husband was born in Hong Kong. Escuro responded with his partner. The apartment looked like a disaster area, with furniture overturned and strewn all over.

The husband demanded to know who called the police, recalled Escuro. The female victim was locked in her room but came out when she heard the police arrive. She begged them for help. The officers separated the couple. The partner tried to calm down the male assailant while Escuro talked to the Filipina, who was trembling uncontrollably. She could barely communicate in English. Escuro started speaking in their native tongue of Tagalog, and then was able to piece together what was happening.

“Speaking in her mother tongue, she seemed more comfortable.” She told Escuro what was going on. Her husband accused her of going shopping and wasting all his money. She denied it — but her husband wasn’t having any of her denials, he said he was going to beat her — maybe kill her. That’s when she ran into the bedroom and called 999.

It was not abnormal for Escuro as a police officer of ethnic minority. 

He constantly receives calls from fellow officers to help with tricky situations. For some reason he’s able to understand people from different minority groups that his colleagues can’t. 

Once, he was in the reporting room when an emergency call came from a woman who spoke with a strong Indian accent. Escuro’s fellow officer couldn’t understand what the woman was trying to say and handed the phone to Escuro, who received the message right away.

The woman was in a panic. Her daughter was missing and the mother had become almost incoherent when she called 999. “From her voice I could tell she had calmed down a lot shortly after I asked her a few details and gave her instructions on what to do next.” Escuro listened to the mother’s explanation. Her daughter hadn’t come home after school, Escuro invited the mother to accompany him in the patrol car, visited the daughter’s usual hangouts. Finally the girl turned up safe — at her mother’s friend’s house.

Seeds of police dream

But a police dream was not built in one day. 

Escuro received a lot of teasing about dark skin in primary school and felt helpless to do anything about it. He thinks the experience gave him empathy and compassion for others. “Probably because of the unpleasant experience in school, I would feel sorry for people when I saw them in trouble and wanted to help out,” said Escuro. Even before joining the force he would try to help people who couldn’t speak the language and didn’t know how to report to the police. He became the translator for victims who couldn’t speak Cantonese or English.

Escuro decided to join the force after participating in the Junior Police Call program designed to encourage local youngsters to become crime fighters, working hand in hand with police. The program offers physical training, volunteer opportunities, leadership courses, camping and hiking to young people between nine and 25. Escuro said he liked the outdoors anyway and always wanted adventure. The police training helped him build physical strength but solidified his ambition to become a police officer. As he reached the senior level of his training, he became a mentor of younger members, especially in treacherous environments, and night hikes. When team members were injured in the camp, he was usually the first one to come out and perform first aid.

The Project Gemstone has helped over 300 ethnic youngsters become more competitive in governmental jobs recruitment. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Language hurdle key problem for ethnic minorities

Many other ethnic minority children set their hearts on government jobs but are not as lucky as Dean Jason Escuro. Poor Chinese proficiency stops them from doing big things, despite their high professional competence, Constable Hung Ka-wai noted. There has been a steep decline in the number of the ethnic minority police since 1997 when China resumed the exercise of sovereignty over the city. Chinese language has taken on greater importance than ever, with Chinese proficiency a prime requisite for civil-service positions. The change diminished chances for ethnic minority people to enter government service. 

Those who succeed work very hard on their Chinese. Believing language should not be a hurdle for aspiring ethnic minority youth, Hung launched a program called Pilot Gemstone in 2013, aiming to provide Chinese tutorial classes for ethnic minority youths resolved to join the disciplinary force, including the Police Force and Fire Services.

Language lessons

Chinese classes are held on Saturdays, open to ethnic minority people with no admission fee. There is group discussion and exercise. Students are guided through reading and asked to summarize or rewrite stories. Reading and writing are common weaknesses among them, even if they speak Cantonese fluently.

Not all government positions demand high proficiency in Chinese, especially those that don’t involve written Chinese paperwork, argues Raymond Ho, senior equal opportunities officer for the Equal Opportunities Commission. He urged every government department to review, critically, each job description and re-evaluate the importance of Chinese in performing the job. As long as candidates perform satisfactorily in spoken Chinese and are qualified professionally, the employer may take them in and provide on-the-job training to improve their written Chinese later on.

Lack of Chinese proficiency is a widespread concern among ethnic minority communities and the government has noted its effect on employment prospects. In this year’s Policy Address, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor emphasized increasing government employment opportunities for ethnic minorities. She said the Civil Service Bureau has started a comprehensive review on entry requirements relating to Chinese proficiency for all the grades in the civil service. The review is expected to be completed early next year.

Positive aspect

 “For some jobs, ethnic minority languages could be seen as a plus or an additional point. Employers should consider allowing the additional skill of speaking an ethnic minority language to offset a candidate’s inadequacy in Cantonese or Mandarin,” suggested Devi Novianti, an officer at the Equal Opportunities Commission.

The Pilot Gemstone program has 60 police volunteers helping teach Chinese. Escuro is one of them. Apart from teaching Chinese, volunteers help candidates prepare for Chinese self-introduction and presentation at interviews for government posts. More than 300 ethnic minority youngsters are learning through the Chinese-learning program. Some already have worked in the government sector. 

Hung hopes to use this successful example and Escuro’s story to help other ethnic minority youngsters understand that language should not be a hindrance to their finding employment with the government and to encourage them to keep trying. 

Contact the writer at jenny@chinadailyhk.com


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