Crime situation remained stable in the first half of 2007

Though the overall crime rate in the first half of this year recorded an increase of 2.3 per cent, the law and order situation remained stable, according to the Police Director of Crime and Security, Mr Lee Ka-chiu.

Speaking at a press conference today (July 24) to review the crime situation in the territory between January and June this year, Mr Lee said, "During the period, a total of 40,357 cases were recorded, representing an increase of 2.3 per cent over the 39, 433 cases in the first half of last year.

There was a total of 7,364 cases of violent crime recorded in the last six months, a 3.8 per cent increase when compared with 7,091 cases in the corresponding period last year.

Based on the number of cases, Mr Lee pointed out that the top four categories of violent crimes were serious assault (3,104 cases), followed by criminal intimidation (991 cases), wounding (822 cases) and indecent assault (669 cases).

Mr Lee said serious assault cases noted a rise of 166 cases (up 4.2 per cent), whereas wounding cases recorded a slight reduction of eight cases. He explained that the main reason for the increase in the number of serious assault and wounding cases was due to the rise of cases relating to domestic violence.

The majority of assault and wounding cases were incurred by various kind of disputes, which accounted for 70.5 per cent of the total cases. Meanwhile, domestic violence cases accounted for 21 per cent, while those related to triad societies accounted for 5.9 per cent only.

With respect to criminal intimidation cases, a total of 991 cases were recorded in the first six months of this year, a rise of 243 cases (up 32.5 per cent) compared with the corresponding period of last year. Among them, over 60 per cent were induced by disputes of different sorts.

"Among disputes of all sorts, money disputes accounted for 20.2 per cent, love disputes 18.4 per cent, commercial disputes 3.4 per cent and other disputes 57.9 per cent," he added.

Regarding indecent assault cases, a total of 669 cases had been noted over the first six months of this year, 115 cases more than the corresponding period of last year.

Mr Lee said it was worth noting that there was a drop of violent cases including robbery and homicide. Robbery dropped by 222 cases (down 25.2 per cent) to 658 cases. Among all categories of robbery cases, the largest reduction was noted in the number of robbery with genuine firearms or stun guns (down 66.7 per cent), where the number of cases of robbery with genuine firearms is zero, followed by robbery with pistol-like object (down 56.3 per cent).

"In the first six months of this year, there were six cases of bank robbery, which is also a tremendous drop when compared with the 20 cases in the same period last year. Besides, a total of five pistols were seized by the Police during the first six months, a slight increase when compared with three pistols in the same period last year," he said.

For homicide cases, eight cases were recorded in the first six months of this year, half of the total number of cases when compared with the corresponding period of the previous year.

He also pointed out that Police had achieved satisfactory results in the fight against triad activities and serious narcotics cases. Over the past six months, Police had mounted a number of intelligence-led and undercover operations against targeted triad personalities and activities to combat the financial sources of triads. Of significance was the operation codenamed "Thunderbolt", a tripartite anti-triad operation conducted by the Hong Kong Police in conjunction with the Guangdong and Macau law enforcement agencies in June this year.

The operation had resulted in the arrest of 1,588 persons, the smashing of 19 gambling dens, 37 vice establishments. In addition, a large quantity of dangerous drugs, pirated optical discs, marked oil, illicit cigarettes and faked goods were seized.

He added that during the first half of this year, a total of 1,035 cases related to triad offences were recorded, a drop of 8.1 per cent. Triad society cases even accounted for only 2.6 per cent (a reduction from 2.9 per cent) of the overall crime rate, a downward trend since 1997.

Regarding the fight against trafficking and abuse of dangerous drugs, Mr Lee said over the past six months, a total of 1,400 serious narcotics cases were detected and 1,763 persons were arrested for serious narcotics offences, an increase of 37.5 and 38.4 per cent respectively when compared with the same period last year.

"Cases involving psychotropic drugs increased by 55.9 per cent, with Ketamine and Cocaine having gone up by 160 per cent and 52 per cent respectively," he said.

In respect of youth drug abuse, a total of 403 youth and juvenile offenders (under 21 years old) were arrested for serious narcotics offences in the first six months of this year, this almost doubled the figure of 204 people arrested in the same period last year. Among the youth and juvenile offenders, over 90 per cent were involved in psychotropic substances.

In the first half of 2007, the number of overall domestic violence reports the Police had recorded was 3,702 cases, increased by 100 per cent compared with 1,834 cases in the same period last year.

Of these reports, 1,253 cases involved criminal elements, an increase of 511 cases compared with the same period last year. There were 2,449 reports of non-crime cases, representing an increase of 1,357 cases in the same period last year.

"Police will continue to stress the importance of handling domestic violence cases properly to ensure that each case will be dealt with in a proper way. By cooperating with various agencies, including government and non-government organisations, by means of multi-disciplinary approach, we hope that the education, prevention and support services to these cases can be enhanced," he added.


Police Report No. 4
Issued by PPRB

End/ Tuesday, July 24, 2007