Macao’s CCTV cameras helped police detect 8,180 crimes in the first ten months of this year, local media has reported.
According to the Unitary Police Service (known by its Portuguese initials SPU), the so-called Eyes in the Sky system has been a significant boon to case resolution rates in Macao, detecting more than 28,000 cases since cameras were first installed in 2016.
Luis Leong, assistant to the SPU’s commissioner-general, told TDM’s Macao Forum radio show that there were currently 1,701 CCTV cameras operating across the city and that there were plans to install a new batch.
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Joining Leong on the programme was Ip Wa Chio, a senior customs officer, who provided an overview of smuggling cases detected between 2020 and October this year. He said that 12,083 cases of smuggling, including 714 cases of cross-border smuggling by vehicles, were detected over the period.
He also said that 313 operations targeting parallel traders were held during the same time frame, detecting 1,085 offences. About 237 million patacas worth of goods were seized. Parallel traders buy low-priced products in one jurisdiction, then sell them at higher prices in another jurisdiction. The so-called “grey market” is not always explicitly illegal but it is frowned upon as it circumvents formal export and import channels, as well as licensing and copyright regulations.
According to the latest figures, reported crime in Macao in the first half of the year has increased since pre-pandemic 2019, but serious crime remains at a relatively low level and no homicides were reported. The main areas of concern are a sharp rise in the number of fraud and scamming cases, and an increase in juvenile delinquency.
