340 Public Order
During the year, Hong Kong continued to be one of the safest cities in the world, with overall law and order situation in the territory remaining stable. There was an eight per cent decline in the overall crime rate.
In meeting one of the operational targets of the Commissioner of Police for the year and in view of the integration of the Pearl River Delta region, the Force accorded priority to working closely with Mainland authorities to clamp down on crimes committed by illegal immigrants and two-way permit holders.
On other fronts, the Police Force maintained exchanges of intelligence with overseas law enforcement agencies in combating terrorism. A large-scale counter terrorism exercise was conducted at the Hong Kong International Airport in August and a tripartite cross-boundary counter terrorism exercise, which involved the Force and its counterparts in the Mainland and Macao, was conducted in November.
The Police Force continued to implement its 'Three Year Strategic Action Plan', revised and republished in 2003, which sets out the focus of police work from 2003 to 2006, in order to provide the most efficient and effective service to the public.
Crime
Reported crimes in 2004 totalled 81 315, a decrease of eight per cent compared with 88 377 crimes recorded in 2003. The crime rate stood at 1 188 cases per 100 000 population, a drop of 8.5 per cent compared with 1 299 cases in 2003. The decrease in crimes was mainly due to a fall in robbery, burglary and thefts.
Violent crimes decreased to 13 890 cases, a drop of 4.5 per cent compared with 14 542 cases in 2003. Robbery, wounding and serious assault accounted for 67.7 per cent of violent crimes in 2004. There was a notable decrease in the relatively more serious violent crimes such as homicide, robbery and blackmail.
Altogether, there were 2 237 cases of robbery in 2004, a drop of 30.4 per cent compared with 3 215 cases in 2003. There were three cases of robbery with genuine firearms; there was no such case in 2003. The number of bank robbery cases was 16, compared with 34 cases in 2003. Most of these cases were perpetrated by lone culprits and did not involve serious violence.
Regarding non-violent crimes, burglary decreased from 9 076 cases in 2003 to 7 002 in 2004, a drop of 22.9 per cent. Serious narcotics offences increased from 2 142 in 2003 to 2 167 in 2004, a rise of 1.2 per cent. Thefts decreased from 40 887 cases in 2003 to 37 500 in 2004, down by 8.3 per cent. Deception fell from 4 732 cases to 4 009 over the same period, a drop of 15.3 per cent.
Of the 81 315 reported crimes in 2004, 43.6 per cent or 35 439 crimes were detected, and 42 991 people were arrested. Of those arrested, 4 897 were juveniles (aged 10 to 15) and 5 812 were young persons (aged 16 to 20). Most of the juveniles and young persons were arrested for shop theft, miscellaneous theft, wounding and serious assault, and robbery. Drug-related offences were also prevalent among the crimes committed by young offenders.