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Andy Tsang says a 'sense of lawlessness' is rising.Photo: David Wong

‘Sense of lawlessness’ spreading in Hong Kong says police commissioner

Occupy co-founder says police chief confusing concepts to denounce pro-democracy protests

Samuel Chan

A "sense of lawlessness" is spreading in post-Occupy Hong Kong according to Police Commissioner Andy Tsang Wai-hung, despite the city recording its lowest annual crime rate since 1973.

But Occupy Central co-founder Dr Chan Kin-man accused Tsang of deliberately confusing the concept of committing a crime and breaking the law in order to vilify the pro-democracy movement.

"This sense of lawlessness does great harm to law and order in the long term," said Tsang on Tuesday, at his last annual review of the city's crime situation before his scheduled retirement in May.

Without providing any figures at the briefing, Tsang claimed burglaries in areas where Occupy took place increased during the 79-day pro-democracy protests due to the extra strain placed on police manpower.

"[The Occupy protest] was an exceptional incident, which is no ordinary law and order issue," Chan said in response to Tsang's remark, adding there was no proof to conclude "a sense of lawlessness" was on the rise.

"Unlike ordinary criminals, civil disobedience is not about breaking the law for your own gain and they would bear the responsibility [for what they did]," he said, adding the root cause of Occupy had always been a political one that should never have been left for the police to handle.

Hong Kong's crime rate dropped by 7.1 per cent in 2014 from the previous year - marking a 41-year low - with the overall crime rate dropping to 936 cases per 100,000 people, Tsang said. This was the first time the rate had fallen below 1,000 cases since 1973. A total of 67,740 crimes in all categories were reported last year, down from 72,911 in 2013.As the crime rate dipped, so did arrests. A total of 33,679 people were arrested for crimes last year - an 8 per cent year-on-year drop.

Serious drug offences were also down by 18.2 per cent, wounding and serious assault down 8.7 per cent and criminal intimidation 4.9 per cent lower than 2013.

But fraud was on the rise with 8,861 deception cases reported last year - 1,343 more than the previous year - of which 978 were conducted using social media. Monetary losses from such scams rose 40 per cent to HK$70 million.

Tsang said most social media scams involved criminals cashing in gaming points they had stolen from online gamers after breaching their passwords.

Victims of telephone deception - often where scammers falsely claimed a victim's friends or relatives had been taken hostage - also lost a total of HK$45 million to fraudsters.

Some 43 mainlanders who travelled to Hong Kong on double-entry permits were arrested in connection with such phone scams.

Meanwhile, the crime detection rate edged up by 0.2 percentage points cent to 43.4 per cent last year. Tsang said difficulties in cracking technology crimes often hampered the detection rate; those cases often required cooperation of overseas counterparts or internet service providers.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Stats hit 41-year low but top cop laments disorder
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