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Following is the transcript (English portion) of the remarks made by the Secretary for Security, Mr Ambrose S K Lee, at a media session at the ground floor lobby of the Central Government Offices, West Wing after the Fight Crime Committee (FCC) meeting this afternoon (February 24):
Secretary for Security: The Fight Crime Committee has reviewed the law and order situation of the year 2008. On the whole the crime situation is very stable. We have reported a decrease in the overall crime statistics, a drop of 2.9%. We have also witnessed a drop of 3.4% in respect of violent crimes. Crimes that recorded a decrease in number included miscellaneous thefts, theft from vehicles, robberies and assault. We have also witnessed increase in certain crimes including burglary and serious narcotics offences. In respect of serious narcotics offences last year, the number of juveniles committing serious narcotics offences is on the rise. This is despite the fact that the overall number of juveniles committing crimes in Hong Kong is on the decrease. So, there is a genuine need for us to tackle this problem of young people taking drugs. Now the Commissioner for Narcotics is coordinating a committee to put in place the various recommendations of the report published (by the Task Force on Youth Drug Abuse) in November last year. The Fight Crime Committee has also discussed the publicity campaign for 2009. We have three different themes. The first one is beware of burglaries. The second theme is to tackle on-line crimes. The third theme is to fight narcotics used by our young people.
The FCC has also discussed a report submitted by the Commissioner of Police in respect of commercial crimes. Dr John Tse will brief the media shortly. By and large, the law and order situation in Hong Kong is very stable despite the fact that we are facing an economic tsunami. The overall crime figures recorded decrease instead of increase. Of course we cannot be complacent. Our law enforcement agencies will be on full alert and we・ll try our best to keep Hong Kong one of the safest cities in the world.
Reporter: Why this year・s crime campaign is targeting at burglaries? Is it because of the financial crisis?
Secretary for Security: No. It・s because we have witnessed from the statistics that burglary cases are on the rise. So, for this year, one of the themes is to alert our residents in Hong Kong: ：beware of burglaries；.
Reporter: I know that the crime situation is stable in Hong Kong, but do you expect a rise in quick-cash crimes in light of the current crisis?
Secretary for Security: We will be on the alert. In the previous economic turmoil like 2002-2003 when we were facing the SARS epidemic, in that period, there was a slight increase in what we called ：quick-cash； crimes - people committing minor offences like shop theft, that kind of things. We will be on the alert.
Reporter: On-line crimes are also a theme of the campaign of this year. Can you talk about the concern there?
Secretary for Security: As you know, the internet technology is advancing very rapidly and our youngsters, some of them, are sort of addicted to the internet. We have discovered that through the internet young people make friends. Sometimes through this kind of contact, there are occasions when girls made acquaintance with a guy outside, and eventually she was raped. That is why we want to alert our people to be careful of internet crimes and their internet friends.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Issued at HKT 21:26
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