Pressure on new police chief Stephen Lo as crime rate creeps up
Jitters in Hong Kong as new commissioner meets security officials for talks in Beijing
Crime is rising in Hong Kong, according to the latest figures, as the city's new police chief arrives in Beijing today for talks with top security officials.
Police data for January and February show the crime rate increased 4.6 per cent, to 11,315 cases, while detection rates were down to 37.9 per cent, compared with 43.4 per cent for 2014.
Commissioner of Police Stephen Lo Wai-chung's predecessor, Andy Tsang Wai-hung, warned earlier this month of a "sense of lawlessness" creeping back into society following the 79-day Occupy protest campaign last year, even though the overall crime rate per person in 2014 fell to a 41-year low.
The new figures come at an awkward time for Lo, who says he is seeking more openness with the public, ahead of his meeting in Beijing with the public security minister and State Council officials in charge of Hong Kong and Macau affairs.
The growing nervousness about crime in Hong Kong was fuelled by the recent kidnapping of Bossini heiress Queenie Rosita Law and news yesterday that police were probing the murder of a woman in the New Territories. The 44-year-old was found on the floor of a property in Yuen Long On Lok Road with string around her neck.
The chairman of the Legislative Council's security panel, Ip Kwok-him, said recent cases including the kidnapping pointed to the need for vigilance, but they did not prove that crime was getting worse.
