******************************************
Following is the transcript (English portion) of the remarks made by the Acting Secretary for Security, Mr Lai Tung-kwok, at a media session at the ground floor lobby in the West Wing of Central Government Offices after the Fight Crime Committee (FCC) meeting this afternoon (February 26):
Acting Secretary for Security: We had a very useful meeting this afternoon and reviewed the overall situation for the year 2009. Overall speaking, the crime situation for the year 2009, when compared with the year 2008, remained stable, both in terms of the overall crime rate and in terms of the violent crime rate. With regard to the violent crimes, there was an across-the-board decrease for a lot of items which have already been distributed to you. We also noticed that there was a rise in theft, deception, pickpocketing, and homicide. Regarding crimes relating to serious drugs, there was a slight decrease of 37 cases, which means a decrease of 1.2%. For the number of young people who had been arrested for suspicion of committing serious crimes relating to drugs, the number was 1115, a decrease of 3.3% when compared with the statistics in 2008. For the past year, the Hong Kong Police and the Hong Kong Customs worked very closely with the Mainland counterparts as well as the foreign counterparts in trying to tackle the problem of drugs being trafficked into Hong Kong. The number and quantity of seizure had increased substantially, in particular Ketamine, which we had seized 496 kilograms. Other than Cannabis, there was an across-the-board increase of the various kinds of drugs we had seized, including Cocaine, Ice, etc. The government is also very serious about the youth drug problem. As what has been revealed in the budget, we will set aside a substantial amount of money in tackling this problem. In particular, the government intends to inject three billions into the Beat Drugs Fund. As for the publicity campaign for the coming year, we will emphasise Anti-Shop Theft, Watch Out for On-line Crime as well as anti-drug measures.
Reporter: Mr Lai, looking forward, do you expect the number of drug-related crimes will continue to increase as the government continues stepping up efforts in tackling the problem? Why have you chosen anti On-line Crime as one of the major themes in publicity? What kind of on-line crimes are you referring to?
Acting Secretary for Security: Firstly, of course, the government is determined to fight the drug problem. Our law enforcement officers will continue to try their best to intercept all drug traffickers as well as try to seize drugs. So I would expect that the number of operations to be carried out this year will remain at a very high level. We do hope that this kind of actions will give a correct signal and stop the inflow of drugs from outside into Hong Kong. This is important because you see that in Hong Kong we do not manufacture drugs ourselves. So all drugs are imported illegally. Thatˇ¦s why we are determined to take serious actions. As for the on-line Crime, we saw a trend that the crimes related to the internet has been on the increase. For instance, the deception and also the rape cases. Take the example of rape cases, according to the police investigations, many victims get acquainted with some ˇ§friendsˇ¨ they donˇ¦t know through the internet. Shortly after a few exchange of mails, they get together to meet each other. And through these meetings, some of the victims got raped. We feel that this is the appropriate time to do more publicity on this area so that people who use internet will constantly be aware of the kind of danger.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Friday, February 26, 2010
Issued at HKT 21:21
NNNN
