Crime situation in 2020
Online deception
With the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 and more people opted for staying at home, Mr CHAN Chun-ying expressed concern about the rise in online deception cases and asked about the Police’s measures in combating them.
CP said that the rise was mainly driven by the upsurge of cases in e-shopping fraud and social media deception, including compensated dating and romance scams. As more people stayed at home and frequently stayed online, the Police would step up relevant online publicity and education initiatives.
Youth crime
Mr CHAN Chun-ying expressed concern about the increase in the number of youths arrested for crime in 2020, in particular the increase of over 100% in the number of youths arrested for serious drug offences. Noting that the Education Bureau (“EDB”) had been collaborating with the Police to organize seminars to promote law-abiding awareness among students in 2020, Mr CHAN asked whether similar activities would be held again.
CP said that the Police had been attaching great importance and endeavouring to strengthen law-abiding awareness among young people. Apart from EDB, the Police would also directly work with schools and some non-profit organizations, as well as other government departments to launch publicity and youth educational programmes. Notably, the Police had recently collaborated with the Correctional Services Department to conduct an activity, with a view to developing law-abiding awareness among young people and keeping them on the straight and narrow.
Cruelty to animals
Mr CHAN Chun-ying was concerned about the rise of 16.7% of cases relating to cruelty to animals in 2020 compared with that in 2019. He asked whether extra manpower support would be allocated for handling animal cruelty cases and whether specific training would be provided to relevant police officers to enhance their professionalism in handling such cases.
CP explained that the rise from 60 cases in 2019 to 70 cases in 2020 might be attributable to the increasing number of animal injured cases reporting to the Police and the growing public awareness on the prevention of cruelty to animals. With more experience accumulated by the dedicated investigation teams, corresponding detection rate had increased as well. The Police noted the public concern and assured members that they would continue working hard in this aspect.