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Following is the transcript (English portion) of the remarks made to the media by the Secretary for Security, Mr Ambrose S K Lee, after the Fight Crime Committee meeting this (April 29) morning:
Secretary for Security: The Fight Crime Committee conducted a meeting this morning. We reviewed the crime statistics for the first quarter of 2006. Overall the crime number shot up a little bit by as much as 4.8 per cent. The number of violent crime has also increased by as much as 8.6 per cent. Increasing crimes include criminal intimidation, deception and robbery. Although this figure--the number of crimes--saw a little bit increase, we can safely say that Hong Kong is still a very secure city. Compared with other metropolitan cities, Hong Kong﷿s law and order is in pretty good shape. As far as juvenile offenders are concerned, we are glad to see that this quarter saw a drop by as much as 9.1 per cent. So overall, Hong Kong is still a very safe city.
Reporter: There is a major increase in the number of bank robberies. How concerned are you about that? Given these figures, what could the Police do?
Secretary for Security: Of course we are concerned. During the same period last year, there were only four bank robberies, but this year it shot up to 17. Of these 17 cases, we classified 12 of them as attempted bank robberies in which the bank counter officer pushed the alarm button, the robber went away. For the other five cases,a lone robber went away with some money, ranging from a few thousand dollars to tens of thousands of dollars. I think experience told us that we should not yield to such kind of bank robbers﷿ requests for money. As soon as the counter officer pushed the alarm button, the bank robber went away. Of these 17 cases, the Police have arrested three suspected persons in connection with at least eight of these robberies or attempted robberies. We have also liaised with the banks and have given them advice on how to tackle or deal with such kind of situations, and we hope that in the latter part of this year the situation will improve.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Saturday, April 29, 2006
Issued at HKT 14:02
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