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Following is a reply by the Secretary for Security, Mr Ambrose S K Lee, to a question by the Hon Andrew Cheng on criminal cases involving taxis and public light buses in the Legislative Council today (March 7):
Question:
Will the Government inform this Council:
(a) in each of the past three years, of the respective numbers of criminal cases and requests for assistance received by the Police involving taxis and red public light buses ("RMBs"), the number of relevant cases solved and the number of persons prosecuted, broken down by offences (including robbing, assaulting and intimidating drivers as well as damaging vehicles) and whether triad activities were involved in such cases, and whether the Government has measures to ensure the personal safety of drivers of taxis and RMBs; if it has, of the details of such measures; if not, the reasons for that; and
(b) in each of the past three years, of the number of complaints, received by the Police, involving triad activities at the taxi stands in the Hong Kong International Airport and the number of persons prosecuted as a result, broken down by offences or misbehaviour involved (such as intimidating drivers, cutting in line (commonly known as "queue jumping") and extorting money from taxis waiting in line, etc), and whether there are measures to punish those taxi drivers engaging in the above misbehaviour (such as queue jumping) (including adopting a similar measure implemented in the former Kai Tak Airport to put such drivers on a "list of undesirable drivers", and prohibiting them from entering the Airport's taxi stands); if so, of the details of such measures; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) For cases of public light buses, the Administration does not have break down figures into red mini-buses and green mini-buses. The number of reported cases involving taxis and public light buses, number of cases detected, number of those cases involving triads and number of persons prosecuted over the past three years are set out at the Annex distributed to Members. The numbers are under 100 per year, which are not high compared to the overall number of cases of the same categories. Triad-related cases are also at low level.
The Administration has always been very concerned at the safety of taxi and public light bus drivers. The Police also often take proactive measures to combat violent crimes involving taxis and public light buses, as well as triad-related activities.
In respect of public light buses, officers of the anti-triad unit of each Police Region and District regularly patrol public light bus stands in their respective area, meet with persons in charge of the routes and public light bus drivers who participate in the route operation to collect intelligence with regard to the operation of public light bus routes. If intelligence reveals that there may be triad members attempting to control the operation of any public light bus route by illegal means, the Police will take proactive action to conduct investigation, and arrest and prosecute the persons concerned.
On prevention, the Police, from time to time, hold meetings with public light bus drivers' groups and taxi-drivers' groups of the territory to offer advice on means and measures to prevent crime and ensure personal safety, for example, how to respond when robbed, the need to avoid carrying valuables at work, and storing the fares received in separate places.
(b) All drivers (including taxi drivers) must comply with the Airport Authority Bylaw (Cap. 438A) and Road Traffic Ordinance (Cap. 374), or they may be prosecuted. The Airport Authority is responsible for the daily operation of the taxi stand at the airport. The Airport Authority does not put law-breaching drivers into a "list of undesirable drivers". According to its records, this measure did not exist in the days of Kai Tak Airport either.
According to the Police's records, of the cases which occurred at the airport taxi stand between 2004 and 2006, there were two cases in 2005 and one case in 2006 involving triad activities. The two cases in 2005 involved people claiming to be members of a triad society as well as criminal intimidation, while the case in 2006 involved criminal intimidation. The Police arrested a total of three persons concerned in these three cases.
Ends/Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Issued at HKT 14:12
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