The First Female Police Officers in Hong Kong Were Recruited in 1951

Walking down the streets of twenty-first-century Hong Kong, it is not unusual to come across female police officers patrolling the city. Yet, that wasn’t always the case. In fact, for the majority of Hong Kong’s history, law enforcement was a male-only occupation.

When the Hong Kong Police Force was officially established on May 1, 1844, thirty-two men were tasked with enforcing the law in the booming town Hong Kong had become.

As the decades passed, the city grew, and so did the police force. However, although women worked in police stations on an informal basis, they remained absent from the force. Indeed, it was only in the late 1940s that a woman joined the Hong Kong Police for the first time.

On December 1, 1949, Sub-Inspector Kimmy Koh was taken on strength to pave the way for the recruitment of female officers. Eventually, in 1951, the first ten female officers were recruited; nine of whom graduated and became constables.

Seventy-four years later, as of June 30, 2025, 18.5% of the 27,222 police officers in Hong Kong were women.