THE murder detection rate in Hongkong lags behind cities such as London and Sydney but still compares favourably with New York, one of the crime capitals of the world, latest figures reveal.
Police files in the territory contain 284 cases of murder and manslaughter that remain unsolved over the past 10 years. The number of undetected killings has stayed between a quarter and a third of the total committed in the past decade.
Official figures show that police last year were more successful in their hunt for killers, with the detection rate increasing from 66 per cent to 75 per cent, but 27 of the 108 reported cases have still not been cleared up.
In London, the Metropolitan Police have kept their detection rate at about the 90 per cent mark, according to a Scotland Yard spokesman.
Their most recent figures, for 1991, show that of the 185 killings, 163 were solved - a success rate of 89 per cent.
''Many experts will tell you that the best way to examine how safe an area or city is would be to look at the rate of murder or manslaughter per 100,000 of the population,'' the spokesman said. ''Our figure here in London is 1.2 murders for every 100,000people.'' Criminologist Dr Jon Vagg, of the University of Hongkong, said the comparative figure in the territory was 1.8 killings per 100,000 of the population, which meant that ''we are living in a pretty safe place''.