Despite an increase of 3.5 per cent in the overall crime, the overall law and order situation remained stable in the first six months of this year, according to Director of Crime and Security Tang Hau-sing.

At a press conference on July 25 reviewing the crime situation in Hong Kong between January and June, Mr Tang said: "During the period, a total of 39,433 cases were recorded, representing an increase of 3.5 per cent over the 38,117 cases in the first half of last year.

A total of 7,091 cases of violent crime were recorded in the first six months, a 7.9 per cent increase compared with 6,571 cases in the corresponding period last year.

Noting that there was a general increase in serious crimes such as bank robbery (up 120 per cent), homicide (up 33.3 per cent), theft from vehicles (up 22.4 per cent), missing vehicles (up 19 per cent), criminal intimidation (up 16.1 per cent) and serious narcotics offences (up 12.2 per cent), Mr Tang emphasised that the Force had spared no effort in attacking these crimes.

However, other serious crimes registered a drop, such as rape (down 15.6 per cent), pick pocketing (down 15.3 per cent), criminal damage (down 11.7 per cent) and burglary (down 4.7 per cent).

Mr Tang pointed out that a total of 20 bank robberies were recorded in the first six months of this year, an increase of 120 per cent compared with nine cases in the corresponding period last year. Yet in 15 of those cases, the culprits failed in their attempts and fled empty-handed, with the banks suffering no loss.

"So far, the police have detected 11 cases and arrested five males. All the cases were committed by lone culprits, and there was no evidence to suggest any involvement of crime syndicates. We believed that some of the cases were simply committed by copycat robbers," Mr Tang noted.

It was worth noting that the second quarter saw improvement in the situation of bank robbery because out of the 20 cases recorded in the first half of the year, 17 occurred in the first quarter, with only three in the second quarter, he added.

The Force had achieved satisfactory results in fighting triad activities and serious narcotics cases, Mr Tang continued. Over the past six months, the Force had mounted intelligence-led and undercover operations against triad personalities and activities to combat their financial sources. Of significance was the operation codenamed "Thunderbolt", a tripartite anti-triad operation conducted by the Force in conjunction with Guangdong and Macau in June this year.

This operation had resulted in the arrest of 1,762 persons and smashing of 37 gambling dens, 44 vice establishments and two smoking divans. In addition, a large quantity of dangerous drugs, pirated optical discs, marked oil and illicit cigarettes were seized. Corresponding operations carried out by the Guangdong and Macau police forces had also yielded significant results.

Regarding the fight against trafficking in, and abuse of, dangerous drugs, Mr Tang said over the past six months, a total of 1,018 serious narcotics cases were detected and 1,274 persons were arrested for serious narcotics offences, an increase of 12.2 and 12.1 per cent respectively, compared with the same period last year.

"Cases involving psychotropic substances increased by 36.1 per cent, with Ketamine and Cocaine having gone up by 120 per cent and 82 per cent respectively. On the contrary, cases involving heroin and 'Ice' had gone down by 20 per cent.

"Except for Ketamine, the quantity of dangerous drugs seized had recorded a drop, compared with the same period last year. It is worth noting that early this year we made two large seizures of Ketamine, totalling 351 kilograms, and also neutralised an Ecstasy manufacturing centre, with a seizure of 600 kilograms of Ecstasy powder sufficient for producing 300,000 Ecstasy tablets.

"Apart from maintaining stringent enforcement action, we will also place emphasis on education and publicity by strengthening the dissemination of anti-drug abuse messages to the public, in particular teenagers," Mr Tang added.

No slackening in road safety effort

Meanwhile, speaking at the same press conference, Director of Operations Yam Tat-wing emphasised that the Force would not slacken efforts to ensure road safety, despite a steady decrease in traffic accidents and fatalities in 2005 and the first half of 2006.

He disclosed that there were 7,158 traffic accidents in the first six months, a slight decrease of 1.5 per cent, compared with the same period last year. Both fatal traffic accidents and deaths caused by traffic accidents registered a drop of 19.7 per cent and 22.1 per cent respectively during the periods in comparison. Despite this decrease, the Commissioner continued keeping "Enhancement of Road Safety" as one of his Operational Targets this year, he noted.

Mr Yam said recent focus was on casualties caused by drink driving. In the first half of last year, 43 traffic accidents involving casualties were caused by drink driving, an increase of nine, compared with 34 in the corresponding period in 2005.

"The total number of casualties amounted to 82, 17 more than the same period last year. There were two deaths, one less than the same period last year while there were 16 cases of serious injuries, four more than that of last year.

"Professional drivers are the first priority of our road safety campaigns and efforts will be made to approach individual drivers through various means of publicity," he said.

"A road safety campaign on Smart Driving with Courtesy will be held in 2006/07 to instil a more positive attitude among drivers so that all road users can stay alert, be courteous and obey the law," he added.

Crime situation remains stable

Mr Yam also pointed out that of the 60 traffic fatalities, 33 were pedestrians, representing 55 per cent of the total number of deaths. The pedestrian group was most vulnerable to traffic accidents and 22 pedestrians (66.7 per cent) who died in traffic accidents were senior citizens aged over 60.

"A road safety campaign will be held for this most vulnerable group. Road safety messages will be disseminated to elderly pedestrians to arouse their awareness of road safety and other pedestrians will be encouraged to help the elderly on the roads.

"Partnership with road safety stakeholders, commercial organisations, media and other related organisations will be strengthened to continue the concerted efforts in road safety," he added.

Regarding the crimes committed by Mainland visitors, Mr Yam said that in the first six months, out of the 6.62 million arrivals, a total of 831 were arrested for committing criminal offences, a decrease of 211 persons, compared with 1, 042 arrested in the same period last year. The main offences were theft, forgery and serious immigration offences.

The involvement of Mainland visitors in prostitution and illegal employment in Hong Kong also registered a significant drop, Mr Yam continued. In the first half of this year, a total of 3,064 and 2,197 Mainland visitors were arrested for involvement in prostitution and illegal employment respectively, representing a respective decrease of 12 per cent and 20.1 per cent, compared with the same period last year.

With regard to street deception committed by Mainland visitors, Mr Yam said: "Enhanced publicity programmes will continue to be launched and focused on elderly people who are prime targets of such crime. All frontline officers will maintain vigilance in preventing and detecting the crime."

On the anti-terrorism front, Mr Yam said a major international event, the International Telecommunication Union Telecom World 2006, would be held in Hong Kong in December and the Force was particularly concerned with the counter-terrorism aspect, in addition to maintenance of law and order.

"This is the first world-class telecom event to be held outside Geneva. It is estimated that the event will draw 50,000 overseas participants and 10,000 local participants.

"Police will maintain effective intelligence exchanges with both the Mainland and overseas security and law enforcement agencies. Timely intelligence and situation assessment would be made to ensure that the Force's level of coverage and operational readiness is commensurate with the prevailing threat level.

"We will conduct regular exercises of various scales to test the relevant contingency plans, and to enhance our counter-terrorism capability and co-ordination efficiency," he added.