ENG-2003 — Page 377

PUBLIC ORDER

Officers also took part in escort duties for residents of Amoy Gardens who were moved to the designated isolation centre in Lei Yue Mun, and undertook security duty at the centre throughout the quarantine period.

Police Force

The Hong Kong Police Force is committed to protecting the public, preventing and detecting crime, maintaining law and order, ensuring smooth traffic operations and reducing the number of accidents, as well as stamping out illegal immigration.

At year-end, the Police Force had an establishment of about 28 000 police officers supported by more than 5 400 civilian staff and reinforced by some 4 500 volunteers serving in the Hong Kong Auxiliary Police Force.

During the year, Hong Kong remained one of the safest cities in the world, with the police sparing no effort in combating violent crime, triad activities and drug offences. In meeting one of the Commissioner's operational targets for the year, 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 terrorist exercise, codenamed 'Spellbinder', was held in October to enhance police contingency plans and ensure an effective response to any terrorist threat.

To better meet various challenges, the 'Three Year Strategic Action Plan' of the Police Force was revised and republished in September, setting out the focus of police work from 2003 to 2006 with the addition of a further 20 projects. These projects include a review on the alignment of the New Territories regions in the light of demographic changes, the enhancement of force members' language capability and the development of a training strategy to facilitate better understanding of and response to Mainland-related issues.

Crime

Reported crimes in 2003 totalled 88 377, an increase of 16.5 per cent compared with 75 877 crimes recorded in 2002. The crime rate stood at 1297 cases per 100 000 population, a rise of 16 per cent compared with 1 118 cases in 2002. The increase was mainly due to the rise in non-violent crimes such as theft and criminal damage.

Violent crimes increased to 14 542 cases, a rise of 2.8 per cent compared with 14 140 cases in 2002. Robbery, wounding and serious assault accounted for 71.3 per cent of the total number of violent crimes in 2003. There was a decrease in the relatively more serious violent crimes such as murder, rape, wounding, kidnapping and robbery.

Altogether, there were 3 215 cases of robbery in 2003, a drop of 8 per cent compared with 3493 cases in 2002. There were no cases of robbery with genuine firearms, compared with four in 2002. The number of bank robbery cases remained the same at 34. Most of these were perpetrated by lone culprits and did not involve serious violence.

Regarding non-violent crimes, burglary increased from 8 211 cases in 2002 to 9 076 in 2003, a rise of 10.5 per cent. Serious narcotics offences decreased from 2243 in 2002 to 2 142 in 2003, a decline of 4.5 per cent. Theft increased from 32 025 cases in 2002 to 40 887 in 2003, an increase of 27.7 per cent. Deception increased slightly from 4 656 cases to 4 732 over the same period, a rise of 1.6 per cent.

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