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Overall law and order situation remained stable in the first half of 2013
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     The overall law and order situation in the first six months of 2013 remained stable with a decrease of 4 per cent in the overall crime figure, according to the Police Director of Crime and Security, Mr Lo Wai-chung.

     Speaking at a press conference today (July 31) to review the crime situation in the territory between January and June this year, Mr Lo said that during the period, a total of 36,068 cases of crime were recorded, representing a decrease of 4 per cent when compared with 37,584 cases in the first half of 2012.

     There were a total of 6,074 violent crime cases recorded in the first half of this year, a decrease of 5.9 per cent when compared with the corresponding period last year.

     Mr Lo said the crimes with the number of cases on the rise included deception (up 10 per cent), blackmail (up 62.3 per cent), indecent assault (up 7.2 per cent), and homicide (up 2.5 fold).

     There were 3,585 cases of deception in the first half of 2013, a rise of 325 cases or 10 per cent when compared with the same period of 2012.  More increases were seen in email scam, online business fraud and social media fraud.

     In the first half of 2013, Police received 511 reported cases of email scam in the corporate level, representing an increase of 342 cases or two-fold when compared with the same period of last year.  The amount of loss went up from $64 million in the first half of 2012 to over $310 million in the same period of 2013, representing around four-fold increase. Around 29 per cent of the victimized companies were Hong Kong companies.

     As regards email scam on personal level, Police recorded 292 cases in the first six months of 2013, a rise of 151 cases or more than one-fold when compared with the same period of last year.  The total amount of money lost increased more than one-fold to $1.1 million, ranging from several hundred dollars to $270,000.

     The first half of 2013 also saw a total of 650 online business fraud cases, an increase of 165 cases over the same period of 2012.  438 cases were in relation to online auction/shopping.

     For social media fraud, there were 109 reported cases in the first half of 2013, an increase of 65 cases or more than one-fold when compared with 44 cases in the same period of 2012.The amount of loss was $20 million which was about the same as the corresponding period in 2012.

     "Due to the continuous upsurge in the usage rate of social media, as well as the popularity of smart phones, people have increased risk when meeting with strangers through social media. The swindlers may use social media to approach victims and ask them to transfer money by using different pretexts, or meet the victims and steal their properties,ˇ¨ Mr Lo said.

     "In view of the rising trend, we have already added 'social media deception' to the area of 'Quick Cash Crime' under the Commissioner's Operational Priorities 2013.  Police have also enhanced multi-agency cooperation, exchange of intelligence and crime prevention publicity with a view to increasing the publicˇ¦s understanding and awareness of online fraud.

     "Police introduce the common modus operandi of social media fraud by producing videos and posting them on Hong Kong Police YouTube which can be easily accessed by the public. Moreover, seminars are held in primary, secondary schools and tertiary institutions to promote preventive measures against social media fraud."

     There were 250 reports of blackmail in the first six months of 2013, an increase of 96 cases or 62.3 per cent over the same period of 2012.  The increase was mainly attributed to the rise in the number of blackmail cases relating to 'Naked Chat'.  In the first half of 2013, Police received 131 blackmail cases relating to 'Naked Chat', an increase of 111 cases or more than five-fold when compared with the 20 cases in the same period of 2012.  Most of the victims were males.  They acquainted with the swindlers through social media platform or instant messaging programs and then were induced to make some indecent exposures, during which photos or video clips were taken for the blackmail.

     As regards indecent assault, Police received 759 cases in the first half of 2013, an increase of 51 cases or 7.2 per cent when compared with the same period of 2012.  Cases committed by strangers constituted nearly 70 per cent of the total figures.  The rise was mainly attributed to the sharp increase (totalling 192 cases, up 46 cases) in the number of cases taken place on public transport and related places. More than 50 per cent (109 cases) occurred within MTR areas.

     There were 53 homicide cases in the first half of 2013, a 2.5-fold increase when compared with 15 cases in the same period of last year.  The upsurge in number of homicide cases was due to the Lamma Island ferry collision occurred on October 1, 2012 causing 39 persons dead.  The two captains were charged with 39 counts of manslaughter each in April 2013.  Disregarding that incident, the figure was similar to that of last year.

     All the 53 homicide cases were detected.  Among the 14 homicide cases excluding Lamma Island ferry collision incident, four involved domestic violence, five were committed by relatives (three involved parents being killed by sons and their friends), two were initiated by triad disputes, one was manslaughter while the other two were resulted from different kinds of disputes/mental illness.

     Mr Lo noted that crimes such as miscellaneous theft (down 6.3 per cent), burglary (down 19.5 per cent), criminal damage (down 10.7 per cent), and wounding and serious assault (down 8.6 per cent) all recorded a decrease.

     He also took the opportunity to talk about robbery, serious drug offences, domestic violence crimes and youth crimes.
There were 255 robbery cases in the first half of 2013, a drop of 64 cases or 20.1 per cent when compared with the same period of 2012.  More than 50 per cent of the cases were street robberies and no genuine firearm was involved.

     Serious drug cases totalled 1,086, a slight rise of 25 cases or 2.4 per cent when compared with the same period of 2012.  Cases involved ice, cocaine and cannabis were on the rise.  There saw decreases in serious drug cases involving heroin and ketamine.

     As compared with figures recorded in the same period of last year, increase in the seizure of heroin, ice and cocaine in the first half of 2013 was noted, namely 51 kg (up 23 kg), 80 kg (up 64 kg) and 85 kg (up 26 kg). The increase was mainly attributed to the detection of drug-trafficking cases at the control points by the Police and the Customs and Excise Department, as well as the territory-wide anti-drug operations conducted by Police.

     There were 946 domestic violence crime cases in the first half of 2013, representing a decrease of 15 cases over the same period of last year. Police also recorded 314 domestic violence miscellaneous cases (down 113 cases), and 6,120 family incident cases (up 148 cases) in which violence was not involved and the cases were of minor nature.  
Police will continue to adopt inter-departmental and multi-disciplinary approach to tackle domestic violence problem.  Even the case does not involve the use of violence or breach of peace, Police will also conduct risk assessment and make referral, such that the person or family in need can be provided with appropriate assistance. In the first half of 2013, the number of cases with referral made to Social Welfare Department was 3,479, representing almost half of all domestic conflict cases.

     A total of 2,866 juveniles and youngsters were arrested for crime in the first half of 2013, a drop of 596 persons or 17.2 per cent as compared with the same period of last year. Most of them were arrested for wounding and serious assault, shop theft and miscellaneous thefts, drug offences and unlawful society offences.

     In conclusion, Mr Lo said that Police would continue monitoring all crime trends closely and pay particular attention to combat those crimes with the number of cases on the rise, especially deception which was noted with a relatively large increase. Other than enforcement action, educating the public to prevent deception would also be our key task.
"Moreover, since young people will spend more time to access the Internet, visit entertainment premises or find summer job during the summer holiday, they may become victims of various crimes or being exploited for engaging in criminal activities.

     "In view of the situation, Police have enhanced enforcement actions, particularly at entertainment premises and places where young people linger, to combat drug problems and other related youth crimes.
'Police have also formulate publicity plans and activities, such as crime prevention seminars in schools before summer vacation and the JPC (Junior Police Call) Fight Crime Summer Camp, to promote youngsters' understanding of employment fraud, Internet crime, youth drug offences and sexual offences, and to strengthen their awareness to beat drugs," he added.

Police Report No. 314

Ends/Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Issued at HKT 18:10

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