Pressure on new police chief Stephen Lo as crime rate creeps up
Jitters in Hong Kong as new commissioner meets security officials for talks in Beijing
Crime is rising in Hong Kong, according to the latest figures, as the city's new police chief arrives in Beijing today for talks with top security officials.
Police data for January and February show the crime rate increased 4.6 per cent, to 11,315 cases, while detection rates were down to 37.9 per cent, compared with 43.4 per cent for 2014.
Commissioner of Police Stephen Lo Wai-chung's predecessor, Andy Tsang Wai-hung, warned earlier this month of a "sense of lawlessness" creeping back into society following the 79-day Occupy protest campaign last year, even though the overall crime rate per person in 2014 fell to a 41-year low.
The new figures come at an awkward time for Lo, who says he is seeking more openness with the public, ahead of his meeting in Beijing with the public security minister and State Council officials in charge of Hong Kong and Macau affairs.
The growing nervousness about crime in Hong Kong was fuelled by the recent kidnapping of Bossini heiress Queenie Rosita Law and news yesterday that police were probing the murder of a woman in the New Territories. The 44-year-old was found on the floor of a property in Yuen Long On Lok Road with string around her neck.
The chairman of the Legislative Council's security panel, Ip Kwok-him, said recent cases including the kidnapping pointed to the need for vigilance, but they did not prove that crime was getting worse.
Ip said that in the face of heated debate on political reform, the police were under great pressure to prepare for radical demonstrations in the event that things turned violent.
"It will be a big challenge for the new chief," he said.
Former police superintendent Clement Lai Ka-chi, founder of the police counterterrorism unit, blamed the slide in the detection rate on investigative officers being shifted to tackle the Occupy protests.
"The scarcity of manpower resources event meant a lot of CID officers were taken away from their desks, their normal investigation duties," Lai said.
In December the police came last in a survey of public satisfaction with the city's disciplined services, scoring 61, which put the force behind the PLA on 63.1.
Apart from these figures, the net satisfaction rate of the police has halved in two years to 29, the dissatisfaction rate has jumped to 27 from 19, and the approval rating is down from 64 to 56.
Henry Ngo Chi-hang, chairman of the Police Inspectors' Association, said: "We welcome any comments from the public, and we do feel the public are confident to report any crime and assist us in our investigations."
