Hong Kong: The Hong Kong Police Service, which was once considered to be the finest in Asia, has taken a nosedive since the crackdown on mass anti-government protests in 2019.

The incident earned wide criticism from several nations.

Kevin Wan (name changed), in his 40s, resigned from the Hong Kong police force after a career of over two decades and justifying his decision he told The Guardian: "I no longer felt proud being part of the force. They lost their sense of mission to serve the community and uphold justice."

“After the wave of protests, police have become the target of hatred in society. A lot of us have a low self image because people are ashamed to be associated with us," Wan said.

The new measures were implemented after the failure of other actions to boost flagging interest. In 2022, police dropped the requirement for applicants to have lived in Hong Kong for seven years. Other attempts to boost numbers have included raising the retirement age of police from 55 to 60, and a recruitment drive dubbed “Never Too Late” to attract recruits over 30, stressing competitive salaries, housing and generous welfare, reports the newspaper.

According to official figures, the government department with the highest number of vacancies is the police service, which has a vacancy rate at 18% as of May 2022. In a force with more than 33,000 officers, there were more than 6,300 vacancies in the first quarter of 2022 – an increase from the previous quarter when there were 5,706 vacancies.

The number of new police recruits in the past three years has continued to fall well short of targets. The number of new constables fell from 43.5 percent of the target in 2019-2020, to 36 percent in 2021-2022.

Police have said a drop in the 15-29 age group of the working population and the post-pandemic business recovery have led to recruitment challenges, The Guardian reported.

Chang Ping, an exiled Chinese writer, told the newspaper that he believed people’s reluctance to join the police force indicated that Hongkongers remained committed to values such as justice and fairness, and were unwilling to be associated with the establishment they saw as having failed them.