Unitary Police Service (SPU) Commissioner-General Ma Io Kun reassured the public Wednesday that Macau’s public security situation is “stable and fine”.
Ma made the remarks while speaking to reporters after attending a ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Alliance for Common People Building Up Macau (API).
Ma’s remarks came after the recent five-day operation to combat unlicensed money-changing and other illegal activities on the premises or the margins of casino-hotel resorts on the peninsula and in Cotai which was jointly carried out by the Judiciary Police (PJ) and the Public Security Police (PSP).
The operation, coordinated by the Unitary Police Service, took place in the wake of a fight involving about 10 men outside the Venetian – captured on video which was widely circulated online – that occurred on Wednesday night last week.
According to an SPU statement on Tuesday, the police arrested 226 people – 191 men and 35 women – for illegally engaging in currency-exchange activities during the five-day operation from last Friday to Tuesday.
According to the Macau Post Daily the officers also caught five women for working as prostitutes and three male illegal immigrants. One of the three illegal immigrants had been involved in a previous loan-sharking case, the statement noted.
Speaking to reporters yesterday, Ma said that the recent mega-operation did not mean that the local public security has worsened, adding that Macau’s overall public security is “stable and fine”.
Ma also said that officers of both the Public Security Police and the Judiciary Police carry out regular inspections every day, adding that the local police forces’ anti-crime operations are deployed all year round. He noted that the Secretariat for Security will announce Macau’s crime statistics for the first quarter later this month.
Ma stressed that the police will continue to conduct other anti-crime operations. He also said that certain crimes would “bounce back” if law enforcement becomes too lax.
Ma also said that the police would closely watch the status of the city’s public security, adding that police officers would be deployed “at once” to take action once they discover “rising trends” for certain crimes.
