Overall law and order situation remained stable in the first half of 2009
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The overall law and order situation in the first six months of 2009 remained very stable with a slight increase in the overall crime and violent crime figures, according to the Police Director of Crime and Security, Mr Lee Ka-chiu.

Speaking at a press conference today (July 29) to review the crime situation in the territory between January and June this year, Mr Lee said, "During the period, a total of 38,969 cases were recorded, representing a slight increase by 0.5 per cent over the 38,777 cases in the first half of last year.

There was a total of 7,146 cases of violent crime recorded in the last six months, a slight increase by 0.7 per cent when compared with 7,095 cases in the corresponding period last year.

Based on the number of cases, Mr Lee pointed out that the top three categories of violent crimes were serious assault (2,917 cases), followed by criminal intimidation (1,174 cases) and wounding (968 cases).

"The total number of serious assault and wounding cases in the first six months this year was 3,885, a rise of about 1.5 per cent when compared with the same period last year," said Mr Lee, adding that one of the main reasons for the increase in these cases was due to the rise in number of cases caused by disputes involving alcoholism, traffic accidents and work conflicts.

Majority of assault and wounding cases were incurred by various kind of disputes. Meanwhile, domestic violence cases accounted for 18 per cent, while triad related ones accounted for 7 per cent.

With respect to criminal intimidation cases, a total of 1,174 cases were recorded in the first six months of this year, an increase of 23 per cent when compared with the corresponding period of last year. Majority of these cases were induced by disputes of different sorts.

"Among disputes of all sorts, money disputes accounted for 16 per cent, those involved relationships or affairs share 24 per cent, disputes involving domestic violence 27 per cent, debt disputes about 20 per cent and triad related disputes about 3.7 per cent" he added.

Turning to homicide cases, Mr Lee said that homicide cases increased from 21 to 27 during the first half of 2009 . There was a fatal traffic accidents causing the death of six people early this year and the driver was charged with six counts of manslaughter.

"If we put aside this incident, the figure of murder cases was 22, similar to 21 in the same period last year," he said.

Mr Lee also pointed out that the number of robbery cases was 430 (down 22 per cent) in the first six months. This is a record low since the handover of sovereignty and there was no cases involving genuine firearms.

He said that during the first half of this year, a total of 1,117 cases related to triad offences were recorded, a drop of 8 per cent. Triad related cases accounted for 2.9 per cent of the overall crime figure, a downward trend since the climax of 3.9 per cent in 1997.

"Quick Cash" crimes totalled 15,674 cases (down 1.6 per cent) in the first half of this year. Whilst overall "Quick Cash" crimes dropped slightly, there was a noticeable increase in pickpocketing (up 12 per cent) and shop theft (up 20 per cent).

"As such, the Police will keep monitoring the impact brought by the Financial Tsunami," Mr Lee said.

Regarding the fight against trafficking and abuse of dangerous drugs, Mr Lee said over the past six months, a total of 1,529 serious narcotics cases were detected and 1,941 persons were arrested for serious narcotics offences, an increase of 2 and 5 per cent respectively when compared with the same period last year.

"Cases involving psychotropic drugs increased by 4 per cent, with Ketamine increased by 8 per cent and cocaine dropped by 9 per cent," he said.

In respect of youth drug abuse, a total of 609 youngsters were arrested for serious narcotics offences in the first six months of this year, a rise of 9 per cent of the people arrested in the same period last year. Over 90 per cent of them were involved in psychotropic drugs.

In view of the abundant supply of dangerous drugs in the global market as well as the existent demand in Hong Kong, Police will focus on combating drug related crimes in the second half of the year.

On the enforcement side, Mr Lee said that Police would continue to proactively collect intelligence for analysis, raid upon drug black spots, strengthen co-operation with overseas and Mainland counterparts to interdic incoming drug supply, conduct financial investigation with a view to confiscating the drug proceeds, apply to enhance sentencing of drug traffickers.

In the first half of 2009, the number of domestic violence crime cases was 1,193, representing a rise of 4 per cent as compared with the same period last year.

Mr Lee said that Police reckoned that early identification of problematic families , early intervention, timely support and appropriate referrals are the most effective ways to prevent the aggravation of such violence.

"To this end, Police have enhanced the computer system of the Domestic Violence Database to broaden the scope of search and storage to include those incidents of problematic faimilies but yet to involve violence," he said.

"We categorize those incidents as domestic incidents, the investgating officers will be alerted by the enhanced system of the inherent risk if there had been two incidents concerning the same family within a period of time."

"Police has strengthened the procedures and strategies in dealing with domestic violence seriously. It is hoped that the enhanced alerting system, appropriate and prompt assistance will be provided to the needy families," he added.

Police Report No. 4
Issued by PPRB

End/Wednesday, July 29, 2009
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