Crime fighter:
Police Director of Crime & Security Lo Wai-chung briefs the media on the crime situation.
Crime fighter:
Police Director of Crime & Security Lo Wai-chung briefs the media on the crime situation.
Law and order remains stable
August 02, 2012
Police Director of Crime & Security Lo Wai-chung said the law and order situation in Hong Kong in the first half of the year has been stable, although the Police force had faced a few challenges.
Briefing the media today, Mr Lo said overall crime cases in the first half rose 0.4% to 37,584, while the detection rate rose 0.3% to 40.9%. Violent crime cases also nudged up 0.3% to 6,454.
He said deception cases increased 13.5% to 3,260 cases, with telephone deception reports up 51.1%. Police will take steps to enhance enforcement, strengthen co-operation with Mainland authorities, and bolster education and publicity.
The force received 169 commercial e-mail scams reports in the first half, five times more than in the same period last year. Its Commercial Crime Bureau has set up a special team to combat these crimes. It has arrested eight and frozen $17 million in suspects' accounts during the period.
Mr Lo said there were 3,666 criminal-damage cases in the first six months, up 7% year-on-year. Enforcement has been enhanced to combat the crime and 888 people have been arrested, up 10.3%.
Thefts decline
He said shop-theft cases recorded a year-on-year fall of 10.2% in the first half, attributed to close co-operation with the industry. Missing motor vehicles cases also fell 28.3%.
Burglary cases in the first six months fell 4.9% to 2,141. Twenty-five percent of these cases involved non-residential premises, down 34.1%. Police will provide recommendations to buildings which have inadequate security measures.
Mr Lo noted there were 15 homicide cases in the first half, up 114.3%. Fourteen of them had been detected, leading to a detection rate of 93.3%.
There were 1,061 serious drug offences in the first six months, two cases more than the same period last year. Police will cooperate with overseas authorities to curb the source of drugs, suppress the demand and forfeit the drug-dealing gains.
There were 3,462 young people arrested for crime, down 12.7%. Most of the cases involved shop theft, miscellaneous thefts, wounding and serious assault. Police will combat youth crimes through prevention and education, enhancing enforcement and other measures.
All in all, Mr Lo said the law and order in Hong Kong has been stable. Police will monitor crime trends and adopt measures focusing on these crimes.
