A Hong Kong police officer is being investigated over claims he has used his position as a de facto dating service, allegedly obtaining a woman’s WhatsApp number during a police stop last week, then hitting her up the next morning to ask if she was seeing anyone.
The accusation came to light after the woman’s boyfriend posted in local online forum LIHKG, saying that the plain-clothes cop, who claimed to be from the city’s Criminal Investigation Department, had stopped his girlfriend and four of her friends on Tuesday night at a video game arcade in the New Territories, asking to see their ID cards as well as their contact numbers.
The next morning, he allegedly contacted her via WhatsApp to ask for her home address and occupation and, wait for it, whether or not she had a boyfriend, a question he said was for his “own curiosity.”
We know that sounds bad, but don’t worry, after finding out she was, in fact, dating someone, he let her know that there was “no need to tell your friends” he had contacted her. Isn’t that thoughtful?
The entire WhatsApp exchange was helpfully captured and posted — with names redacted, of course — on the forum.
Unsurprisingly, the incident quickly went viral and netizens urged him to make a formal report to the Complaints Against Police Office.
In case you’re wondering, under section 54(1) of the Police Force Ordinance, it is lawful for a police officer to stop someone “acting in a suspicious manner” and demand proof of identity, though it was not immediately clear on what pretense the officer had stopped the young woman and her friends on Tuesday.
The CAPO and Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data have confirmed receiving the man’s complaint and pledged to handle the situation based on established procedure, though both refused to comment further on the case, HK01 reported.
While CAPO did not confirm that the person in question was actually a police officer, Apple Daily reported that they had tracked the man down on Facebook and were able to confirm he was a member of the force.
