Macao’s recorded 5,915 crimes in the first six months of 2021, a year-on-year increase of 26.1 per cent.
However, a spokesman for the Macao Government Information Bureau pointed out that compared with the number of crimes recorded in the first half of 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, the number of crimes recorded in the first half of this year fell by 14.5 per cent. He described Macao’s overall public security situation in the first half of this year as “stable” and “propitious”.
The spokesman underlined that the number of violent crimes did not rise in the first half of this year, andt the number of serious violent crimes remained “very low”, with two homicides, the same number recorded in the first six months of 2020.
The spokesman attributed the 26.1 per cent overall increase in recorded crimes to the impact of the novel coronavirus situation on people’s lives, as that they spent more time on the Internet to make new friends and to buy goods online, apart from increased street patrols and anti-crime operations by the police.
The number of fraud cases – including cyber fraud – increased to 667 in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of nearly 50 per cent.
According to the spokesman, the public security forces will further develop “smart policing” and step up intelligence exchanges and cooperation with their counterparts in neighbouring regions.
