Both Mr Au (right) and Mr Lau answer media questions at the press conference

The overall crime situation in Hong Kong in the first half of 2016 remained stable with a decrease of 13.2 per cent in the overall crime figure over the same period in 2015, said Director of Crime and Security Au Chi-kwong when he reviewed the crime situation in the territory between January and June this year at a press conference on July 27.

During the period under review, a total of 29 542 cases of crime were recorded, representing a decrease of 4 492 cases or 13.2 per cent over the corresponding period of last year.

There were a total of 4 945 violent crime cases recorded in the first half of this year, a decrease of 6.6 per cent when compared with the same period of last year.

Homicide & robbery

Crimes with the number of cases dropped by 10 per cent included deception, rape, miscellaneous theft and blackmail. Crimes recorded rises included homicide and robbery.

There were 15 homicide cases in the first half of 2016, an increase of four cases over the same period of last year. Four of the cases were manslaughter, two involved domestic violence, one was committed by relative, one was robbery and murder, and the other seven cases aroused by different kinds of dispute. Fourteen homicide cases were detected.

There were 140 cases of robbery in the first six months of this year, a rise of 22 cases over the same period of last year. No genuine firearm was involved in the said period while three cases involved pistol-like objects and two of them were detected.

Deception cases

As regards cases on a downward trend, there were 3 368 deception cases in the first half of 2016, being a decrease of 1 507 cases over the same period of last year. Among them, telephone deception and social media deception recorded remarkable drops.

There were 410 telephone deception cases in the first half of this year, a drop of 960 cases compared with the same period of last year. The three major modus operandi, "detained son", "guess who" and "pretend mainland officials", recorded drops in the number of case. Although the number of case dropped, the pecuniary loss rose by 1.3 folds to $106.99 million. The rise was mainly attributed to a "pretend mainland officials" case in March that involved a record high loss of $58.8 million.

There were 506 social media deception cases in the first half of 2016, being a decrease of 434 cases over the same period of last year. The drop was mainly due to a sharp decrease of fraudsters using instant messaging applications to cheat for recharging vouchers or game cards.

Rises were observed in "fake compensated dating" and "romance scam" which recorded 302 cases (up 139 cases) and 47 cases (up 28 cases) respectively. Although there were not many "romance scam" cases, the pecuniary loss was significant which amounted to $36.8 million, being a rise of 1.7 folds.

Theft, blackmail, assault & drug

In the first half of 2016, there were 6 343 cases of miscellaneous theft (down 16.6 per cent) and 4 651 cases of shop theft (down 6.2 per cent).

In the first half of this year, there were 539 blackmail cases, representing a drop of 16.2 per cent when compared with the same period of last year. A total of 389 "naked chat" and 40 ransomware-related blackmail cases were reported.

There were 2 414 cases of wounding and serious assault cases (drop 5.3 per cent) in the first six months of this year, among them 221 cases were triad-related (up 18.2 per cent).

In the first half of 2016, there were 871 serious drug cases (down 8.9 per cent). Concerning the amount of seizure, cocaine and "ice" were reported with an increase. The amount of cocaine seized recorded a significant rise of 1.5 times compared with the same period of last year. This was mainly attributed to the cracking down of two large-scale drug trafficking cases in June during which a total of 222 kilogrammes of cocaine with a total market value of $230 million were seized.

Burglary (1 206 cases, drop 6.1 per cent) and indecent assault (485 cases, drop of 3.8 per cent) also recorded drops in the first half of this year.

There were 30 rape cases in the first half of 2016, a decrease of 11 cases over the corresponding period of last year. One of the cases involved stranger while the remaining 29 cases were committed by acquaintances. Twenty-six cases were detected.

Other crimes

Mr Au also talked about some other crimes of interest.

There were 905 triad cases in the first half of 2016 (up 8.5 per cent). The rise was mainly stemmed from the stringent Police enforcement action against triad activities. Triad-related crimes constituted 3.1 per cent of the total number of crime cases and mainly involved wounding and serious assault, unlawful society offences and serious drug offences.

In the first half of this year, there were 728 domestic violence (crime) cases (up 5.5 per cent), 242 domestic violence (miscellaneous) cases (down 17.7 per cent), and 5 499 cases of domestic incidents of minor nature or with no violence (down 3.5 per cent).

The number of youths arrested for criminal offences in the first half of 2016 dropped by 20.3 per cent to 1 810 persons when compared with the same period of last year. They were mainly arrested for shop theft, miscellaneous theft, wounding and serious assault, serious drug offences and unlawful society offences.

"The overall crime situation in the first half of 2016 remained stable. As for common crimes of interest such as robbery and burglary, we will continue to spare no effort in preventing and combating them by stepping up patrol and conducting intelligence-led enforcement actions," said Mr Au.

"Despite a downtrend was observed for the crimes recorded with significant rise in the past few years, for instance, social media deception, telephone deception and 'naked chat', we should not lower our guard.

"These types of crime mostly involve cross-boundary and information technology perspective, which pose difficulty to our investigation. Fraudsters do not need to show up and can hide anywhere in the world. They change their modus operandi, pose as different kinds of persons, use various languages and with all sorts of excuses for a single purpose - cheating money. Being deceived, victims' money would very likely be transferred out of Hong Kong and their life savings would not be recovered. Members of the public should therefore stay cautious, in particular, when strangers ask for money. Bank transfer can take place as fast as the blink of an eye and money may never come back," Mr Au reminded.

"The latest modus operandi and preventive messages of various types of scams as well as cyber security tips are now available on the Police's 'Fight Scams Together' platform. There are altogether 30 video clips relating to 20 odd types of scams. I encourage the public to spend just the length of time of two movies to visit the platform to find out more about the latest modus operandi and to share the information with your family and friends, so as to prevent you and your loved ones becoming a victim of crime," Mr Au added.

Community engagement

On the other hand, Director of Operations Lau Yip-shing said at the press conference that building up partnership with the community is the most effective way to achieve Police's vision of maintaining Hong Kong as one of the safest and most stable societies in the world.

Police use web-based platforms and social media to enhance communication with different local communities and disseminate crime prevention messages. The "Hong Kong Police (HKP) Mobile Application" and the "HKP YouTube" have recorded over 144 000 downloads and attracted over six million views respectively. "HKP Mobile Application" launched a "Push" function in May this year. The function had been used during a number of major police operations earlier to disseminate timely police messages to the public.

The "HKP Facebook" was launched in October 2015 to provide the Force with an interactive interface to communicate with the public. In the first half of this year, over 300 posts were uploaded and over 81 000 "Likes" were recorded.

"Police will continue to strengthen communication with the community through the effective use of web-based platforms and social media. Regular review will be conducted for optimising the effectiveness of the Force's social media platforms," said Mr Lau.

Mass media is an important platform to Police in engaging the community. Police have always accorded priority to provide timely and accurate information to the media. The Force Media Liaison Cadre was formally established in December last year. It plays a mediating role between the Police and the media in police operations and provides media liaison support. The Cadre has 150 members.

Road safety

Road safety remains as one of the Commissioner's Operational Priorities. Police adopt a multi-agency approach, through road engineering, public engagement and effective enforcement, to enhance road safety.

Police have developed the 2016 Selected Traffic Enforcement Priorities. Territory-wide operations against the selected offences will be conducted.

There were 7 905 cases of traffic accident in the first half of this year, representing a decrease of 23 cases as compared with the same period of last year. The number of fatal traffic incidents decreased by five to 51 cases. Fifty-three people were killed in traffic accidents and 37 of them were pedestrians. Out of the 37 deceased, 18 were elderly pedestrians, a decrease of five people as compared with the same period of last year.

Apart from the carelessness of pedestrians, driving inattentively is also one of the contributing factors of traffic accidents. There were 2 166 cases of traffic accidents involving driving inattentively in the first half of 2016, sharing 27 per cent of total traffic accident cases, being an increase of 247 cases over the corresponding period of last year.

"All road users should drive attentively and obey traffic rules so as to ensure the safety of oneself and others," Mr Lau said.

Public events

Regarding public events, Mr Lau said Police have handled 5 602 public events in the first half of 2016, representing an increase of 2 371 cases or 73 per cent over the same period of last year.

Police always respect the public's right to peaceful assembly and procession. It is the policy of the Force to facilitate all lawful and peaceful public events.

"Most of the public events were held in a peaceful and orderly manner. However, there were some who were not co-operative and failed to notify Police prior to their intended public events in accordance with the laws. There were also some who used violent means to express their views or opinions. Such has significantly added difficulties to Police manpower deployment in maintaining order and facilitating public events," Mr Lau stressed.

"I appeal to the citizens holding whatever views to observe the laws when taking part in public events so as to ensure public safety and public order. Any person who plans to organise a public meeting or procession shall comply with the Public Order Ordinance, and shall give notice to the Commissioner of Police. By giving prior notice, Police can effectively deploy manpower and make better arrangement to facilitate members of the public in taking part in these public events.

"Police will continue to be professional in the execution of duty. Resolute enforcement actions will be taken against any illegal acts to maintain Hong Kong as one of the safest and most stable cities in the world," he concluded.