Wong Sio Chak: Economic progress to blame for more crimes

The Judiciary Police’s (PJ) main priority for this year will be to prevent fraud committed through phone calls or the Internet, the PJ director Wong Sio Chak said yesterday

The number of crimes reported climbed by 7.2 percent last year, with most cases relating to theft or linked to gaming, the Judiciary Police (PJ) said yesterday. The PJ director, Wong Sio Chak, explained that the main reason for this increase was the economic growth of Macau.
During the PJ’s annual media meeting, Wong announced that 10,613 crime reports were filed in 2011, compared to 9,898 in 2010.
The number of murders and extortion cases almost doubled in 2011. There were four murders, all of them linked to gaming, he said. A total of 49 cases of extortion were registered.
The most significant increase was in theft and robbery. There were 163 cases of robbery, 11 more than in the previous year, and 2,064 cases of theft, up by 573.
The head of the PJ stressed that there are two reasons for this increase. “It’s possible that this increase was due to policing improvements and a better relationship between the community and the police, which encouraged residents to report more crimes.”
On the other hand, he added, “the rapid development of the territory and the tourism industry is inevitably affecting security.”
However, Wong said that does not mean that the city is becoming unsafe. “We cannot say that safety is dropping in Macau,” he assured.
Rapid economic growth was also the reason behind the increase in all crimes linked to casinos, according to Wong, which increased from 1,655 in 2010 to 2,028 last year.
There was a total of 20 kidnap cases, four more than in the previous year, and 175 cases of loan-sharking (up by 10). Thefts inside casinos also soared by 87.1 percent to 174 cases.
“Last year we had a lot of tourists and gaming revenues also increased a lot,” Wong explained. “Economic development causes an increase in crimes related to gaming,” he added.
He added that, since the handover, the number of casinos and gaming areas had skyrocketed. According to Wong, this brings difficulties to police work and he acknowledged there is a lack of human resources.
The head of the PJ vowed to strengthen policing and the number of officers in plain clothes to curb the theft increase. Wong also encouraged residents to report crimes more often to help police work.

Online frauds

This year the PJ’s main target is fraud committed through new technologies. Although the number of cases has dropped slightly “due to PJ’s awareness campaigns”, Wong said it is necessary to strengthen the community’s alertness on how to prevent fraud, especially through phone calls and Internet.
“This year, we will continue to launch measures against these kinds of crimes [cybercrimes],” Wong said.
“We have been training our officers due to the continuous development of new technologies,” he pointed out. “I appeal to the population to pay attention to protect their networks and to what they communicate online.”
The PJ is also concerned with the increasing number of people that use drugs at home. He said that these cases are more difficult to spot and thus appealed to all residents to pay attention and alert the police.
On the other hand drug trafficking cases dropped slightly to 96 cases, compared to 102 in 2010. Nevertheless, Wong emphasised that the number of drug mules is still significant, with 14 cases busted at the Macau International Airport last year, only two fewer than in 2010.
The official also reported an increase of non-residents involved in crimes. A total of 170 non-residents were prosecuted in 2011, up by 11. However he said that the number of suspects from mainland China decreased.