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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 (November 20):
Secretary for Security: The Fight Crime Committee has reviewed the overall crime situation for the first 10 months of this year. The overall law and order situation is very stable. The overall crime rate dropped by 2.5% and the violent crime rate also dropped by 2.8%. The types of crime that recorded a drop included miscellaneous theft, theft from vehicle, serious assault and criminal damage. Certain crimes recorded an increase, including shop theft, wounding and robbery. The number of murder cases or homicide cases also recorded an increase as compared with last year.
The Fight Crime Committee has also reviewed the report submitted by the Task Force on Youth Drug Abuse. The Fight Crime Committee has reviewed and endorsed the recommendations in the report. I notice that one or two recommendations in the report attracted some criticism from the community or the press, including the proposal to examine suspected drug takers under certain criteria, like reasonable suspicion. I wish to emphasis that this proposal is not aimed at facilitating prosecution action against suspected drug takers. Its prime objective is to identify drug takers at the earliest opportunities, so that we can provide rehabilitation and other services to them, so that they can quit taking drugs as early as possible.
Reporter: I have a similar question about human rights and privacy. How can you ensure they are not breached? Another question: can you explain why there was a 62% rise in the number of murder cases?
Secretary for Security: On the forced examination of suspected drug takers, as we mention in the Task Forceˇ¦s report, we have noticed that there are human rights as well as privacy concerns. If, after consultation, there is a consensus in the community that we should go down this route, then we must make sure that in future the procedures are so framed that we will take care of the human rights as well as privacy concerns. For example, if the suspect is under-aged, then we should have his or her parents present at the examination, or have a social worker there to protect the rights and privacy of the suspect concerned.
You also asked about the increase in the number of homicide cases. We have registered 34 homicide cases so far. Compared with the 21 cases in the same period last year, there appears to be a sharp increase in the number of homicide cases. But we must look at these figures in the right prospective. Last yearˇ¦s homicide figure was the lowest for the past 30 years, so we cannot take this one-year as the base figure. In fact, in the past 10 years, the average number of homicide cases each year was 45. For the past 10 months we had 34. That was not really an alarming figure compared with the average annual figure for the past 10 years.
Reporter: ˇKWe are facing the financial crisis. Do you expect ˇK?
Secretary for Security: The overall crime rate is decreasing and so is the violent crime rate. I must thank the Hong Kong people for their law-abiding behaviors. And of course, our Police Force is doing a wonderful job. You asked whether the current financial tsunami or crisis would have an impact on our law and order situation in the coming days. If past experience is anything we can rely on, like in 2002 or 2003 when we had the financial crisis and then we had the SARS epidemic, the crime rate had not increased sharply in those difficult days. I would not expect that there will be any deterioration in our law and order situation but we must keep ourselves alert to any development in future.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Thursday, November 20, 2008
Issued at HKT 20:59
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