The police busted 32 organised crime cases last year, a year-on-year increase of 146 percent from just 13 such cases in 2015, Secretary for Scurity Wong Sio Chak said on Monday.
Wong revealed the figure during a press conference about the city’s 2016 crime figures at the Secretariat for Security (GSS) in the S. Francisco Barracks.
Wong said the rise in organised crime cases was mainly due to nine cases of abetting illegal entry into the city and nine others related to casino loansharking. Reported cases involving pimping also rose from just one case in 2015 to four last year.
According to Wong, last year’s total number of crimes rose 5.4 percent year on year to 14,387. He said there was a rise in the number of gaming-related crimes last year with 1,851 cases recorded, up 19.2 percent.
The police recorded 504 false imprisonment cases and 469 loan-sharking cases last year, with a year-on-year increase of 22.9 percent and 32.5 percent respectively.
Wong was quick to add that locals’ safety was not affected since most of the gaming-related crimes happened inside casinos, and that most of the victims were non-locals.
According to the data, there was a sharp rise in both disobedience and counterfeit currency cases, with a year-to-year rise of 56.7 percent and 65.5 percent respectively.
Wong said the increase in disobedience cases was due to a clamp-down on over-stayers holding provisional stay permits and failing to report to the police on the required date, thereby committing the crime of disobedience.
According to Wong, although the number of counterfeit currency cases rose, the amount involved had decreased. Judiciary Police (PJ) Director Chao Wai Kuong said when addressing the press conference that the police would continue to issue warnings for residents to beware of bogus banknotes.
According to the data, the number of reported cases of child abuse jumped by 60 percent to 16. Only one homicide was reported last year. Violent crime rose 11.3 percent to 840 reported cases last year.
The number of foreign over-stayers nabbed by the police fell 20.7 percent to 2,491. The number of undocumented foreigners caught by the police dropped 38.5 percent to 329, of who 309 were Vietnamese nationals.
When asked by a reporter about the Taishan Nuclear Plant, Wong said consultations about the Nuclear Safety Emergency Report Mechanism Protocol between Guangdong and Macau had been concluded, and would be signed by the two governments as soon as the text is approved.
Wong added that local entities would be invited to visit the plant after the protocol is signed.
The Taishan Nuclear Plant, which is slated to start operation later this year, is situated 67 kilometres from Macau. There is public concern about the plant’s safety because of anomalies reported by the French Nuclear Safety Authority of a reactor vessel model which reportedly will be used in the Taishan Nuclear Plant. The mainland authorities have insisted that the plant is safe.
Meanwhile, when asked by a reporter about a Tibetan artist who had reportedly been refused entry into Macau to attend an art event, Wong said the police had no record of that person’s entry or deportation.
Asked by a reporter about local police protection for the bereaved family of Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un, who was assassinated in Kuala Lumpur earlier this month, Wong said that the police were ensuring the safety of all citizens and tourists in Macau.
However, he also said that the police were paying attention to the case. Wong also asked the media for their understanding that he could not comment on individual cases because of privacy and confidentiality concerns.
(Macau News / The Macau Post Daily)
