***********************************
Following is the transcript (English portion) of the remarks made by the Secretary for Security, Mr Ambrose S K Lee, at a media session at the ground floor lobby in the West Wing of Central Government Offices after the Fight Crime Committee (FCC) meeting this afternoon (September 29):
Secretary for Security: The Fight Crime Committee has reviewed the crime situation of the first eight months of this year. In general, the law and order situation in Hong Kong is rather stable. There is a slight decrease in violent crime, a drop of 1.5%. The types of crimes that have registered an increase include criminal intimidation, criminal damage, shop theft, pickpocketing and deception. And of course there are other crimes that have recorded a decrease, like all kinds of robbery, burglary, loss of vehicles, wounding and serious assault, and that sort of things. Among the types of crimes that have registered an increase are serious narcotics offences. We notice that the number of young offenders arrested for serious narcotics crimes have registered an increase of 13%. That is a concern for us. And that is why the Chief Executive has started a campaign to mobilise community support to fight this war against youth drug abuse. Come December this year, weˇŻll start an exercise to examine young students under a Trial Scheme on School Drug Testing in Tai Po. Once again, I wish to emphasise that the whole exercise is not to punish students for taking drugs. Our main concern is to prevent those who have not involved in drugs (from doing so), and to discourage them from taking the first bite. We also want to encourage those who are drug abusers to come forward for rehabilitation.
Reporter: Mr Secretary, can you explain once again why you say the youth drug abuse problem is a concern to you? And do you expect that there will be more such cases, especially cross-border cases, during the upcoming holidays?
Secretary for Security: As I reported on previous occasions, in the past few years, we noticed that the number of young drug offenders had increased by some 30-odd per cent. Now in the first eight months this year, the number of young drug offenders arrested has increased by 13%, as compared with the figure of last year. So that is a concern for us. As I reported earlier, the Chief Executive has engaged the whole community to fight this war against drugs. We want to mobilise community support. WeˇŻll introduce a drug testing scheme in Tai Po. WeˇŻll step up our enforcement action, including co-operation with law enforcement agencies overseas as well as in the Mainland, in the exchange of intelligence and information and if appropriate, to conduct joint operations. Perhaps the public will notice that in the past few months, our police officers and our customs officers had already doubled their efforts in cracking down drug syndicates and drug peddlers, leading to the seizure of various kinds of drugs. We have also managed to stop several hundred of kilos of various types of drugs from entering Hong Kong. This campaign will continue. We will appeal to the whole community to support us. We need your support.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Issued at HKT 20:13
NNNN
