Crime situation: Safer city with better prospects

On July 27, the Hong Kong Police Force issued its latest six-monthly report on the crime situation, covering the period from January to June 2021. It contains a mass of information, much of it positive, but by no means all. Such reports are invariably useful, and they can assist in different ways.

In the fight against crime, detection, by which is meant some form of solid action or sanction, is always vital. It is, therefore, reassuring to discover that the overall detection rate has increased by about 3.6 percent, to 35.7 percent, which, although it may not sound particularly high, is encouraging. By comparison, the Home Office in England and Wales, for example, reported a detection rate of 7.8 percent in the year ending in March 2019, which was down from 9.1 percent in the previous year. Hong Kong’s improved detection rate is undoubtedly related to the end of the insurrection of 2019-20, as this has released many officers from public order duties and enabled them to get back to their core investigate functions.

One of the most important purposes of the biannual reports is to alert the public to the incidence of particular crimes, such as burglaries or assaults on females late at night, so that people can take the necessary precautions. Allied to this, the reports show the areas where enhanced policing is required, and which may necessitate a redeployment of manpower and resources. If, moreover, existing offense provisions are inadequate to combat particular types of delinquency, such as the psychological abuse of children, the government is put on notice that it may need to strengthen the legal framework.

While, therefore, the report (on the Hong Kong crime situation) provides grounds for real encouragement, the situation could change quickly. If, moreover, things are to progress, it would be wrong to leave everything to the Police Force, particularly where young people are concerned. Anti-crime initiatives are all well and good, but what needs prioritization for the city’s youth is better parenting, responsible teaching, character building, career planning, and realizable work prospects

The report’s good news is that the overall crime situation has improved, in comparison with the corresponding period in 2020. Whereas there were 32,345 crimes in the first six months of last year, these declined by 4.6 percent, to 30,871, this year. In relation to particular crimes, robberies fell by 64 percent, from 186 to 67, burglaries fell by 35.9 percent, from 1,156 to 741, and thefts dropped by 13.4 percent, from 10,762 to 9,317. 

The reduction, moreover, by 15.7 percent, of wounding and serious assault cases, down from 2,462 to 2,076, is also most welcome. It suggests strongly that the ethos of violence unleashed by the protest movement and its armed wing during the insurrection has run its course, meaning everybody is safer. This, of course, has not happened by chance, but is directly linked to the enactment of the National Security Law for Hong Kong on June 30, 2020. This has restored decency to the city, and helped the police to end the fanatics’ depredations.      

It was, however, as the report shows, not all one-way traffic. In the first six months of this year there were, in comparison to last year, significant increases in the number of rapes, indecent assaults and domestic violence cases. Potential victims, therefore, will need to be on their guard, and to exercise even greater care than usual. The police will also need to consider if extra protections might assist, such as beefed-up street patrols or crime advisories. If, moreover, the social services can do more to identify households where tensions are running high, particularly where families are living in highly cramped conditions, this could help to deter the violent and protect the vulnerable.

One highly encouraging feature of the report is the drastic reduction in the number of young people falling foul of the law. During the insurrection, the protest movement eagerly fed off the gullibility of the city’s youth, deploying many of them to its frontlines. This, of course, had disastrous consequences for many of them, including the teens and even preteens they involved in, for example, their petrol bombings. Their naivete was ruthlessly exploited by those who wanted to sabotage the “one country, two systems” policy and provoke Beijing into an armed intervention. Although they failed, many of the youngsters they seduced have been left carrying the can for them, including the 13-year-old boy who pleaded guilty at court on July 30 to carrying two petrol bombs in Mong Kok, on Aug 31, 2019. The situation, however, is now improving, which is very good news for everybody who believes that the city’s youth hold the keys to its future. 

In 2018, the year immediately prior to the insurrection, a total of 2,769 juveniles (aged 10 to 15) and young people (aged 16 to 20) were arrested for various crimes. But once the insurrection got underway, the figure mushroomed to 4,268 in 2019, followed closely by 3,987 in 2020. The report, however, reveals a marked decline in youth arrests in the first six months of this year, and the overall figure of 1,519 arrests suggests a return to pre-insurrection levels. Whereas the number of juveniles arrested in the first six months of 2020 was 707, this fell, in the reporting period, by 23.3 percent, to 542. The corresponding decline in the young person category was 38.9 percent, down from 1,599 to 977. 

With the exception, therefore, of the protest leaders themselves, who led so many young people astray in the first place, this development will gratify everyone who cares for the city’s future. If the school system can do more in future to instill basic values into its students and to ensure they possess basic moral values, this will go a long way toward ensuring that nobody can dupe them again. But vigilance is necessary, as many of those who fomented the unrest in 2019 are still at large, and as dangerous as ever. They remain on the lookout for new means of exploiting young people and turning them against society, whether by disrespect of the national anthem, seditious activity at universities, or even bomb plots.

Although the National Security Law has helped to cleanse the city, many dangers linger beneath the surface. But, despite this, the report indicates that the new law has been deployed with great restraint. Indeed, in almost 13 months only 117 people were arrested under it, with only 64 having been prosecuted. Its very existence has been beneficial, and many people who were inclining to delinquency have now stepped back from the abyss. Some losers, of course, have either fled or emigrated, but the city is not yet out of the woods. Other individuals, like a latent cancer, are simply biding their time, and these are the ones the police must neutralize. 

While, therefore, the report provides grounds for real encouragement, the situation could change quickly. If, moreover, things are to progress, it would be wrong to leave everything to the Police Force, particularly where young people are concerned. Anti-crime initiatives are all well and good, but what needs prioritization for the city’s youth is better parenting, responsible teaching, character building, career planning, and realizable work prospects. After all, Hong Kong can only achieve its full potential if it not only harnesses all its talent, but also motivates all its people to pull together in support of local and national objectives.

The author is a senior counsel, law professor and criminal justice analyst, and was previously the director of public prosecutions of the Hong Kong SAR.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.