Safeguarding national security and engaging the whole community to counter terrorism will be Police’s work focus this year.

At a press conference this afternoon, Commissioner of Police Siu Chak-yee said the force will continuously enhance intelligence gathering, and proactively strengthen public readiness and responsiveness towards home-grown terrorism and self-radicalised acts through different media and activities.

He encouraged the public to make reports to Police, hoping that the whole community will counter terrorism.

Mr Siu also noted that as at January 25, Police arrested a total of 162 people for committing crimes related to the National Security Law and more than 100 people have been charged.

As regards the overall situation, the number of crimes reported in 2021 was 64,428 cases, 1.9% more than in the previous year. There were 9,587 violent crime cases, a rise of 2.1% compared with 2020.

The overall detection rate in 2021 was 38.5%, with a slight increase of 0.7 percentage points when compared with 2020.

Overall crimes registered an increase of 1,196 cases, mainly due to the rise of over 3,000 deception cases.