The number of crimes reported in the first quarter of this year saw a drop of 4.7% compared with the corresponding quarter in 2014, with no serious violent crime which showed that Macao’s public security was maintained at a stable level, said the Secretary for Security, Mr Wong Sio Chak.
Releasing the crime figures for the first quarter of 2015 at a press conference on 21 May, Mr Wong said telephone fraud and cases related to webcam blackmail over nude images dropped 29.7 per cent and 77.8 per cent respectively compared to the same period last year. But the amount of money involved in these cases was more than that of last year despite police efforts in anti-crime promotion and fighting crime.
The police carried out 3,588 criminal investigations, an increase of 2.4 per cent with 83 more cases, the increases mainly in false imprisonment and blackmail cases.
Violent crime fell by 4.7 per cent: there was not one case of murder, abduction or serious violent crime in this period.
Gaming-related crime rate remained similar to that of last year, showing the drop in gaming revenue has little negative impact on the social environment.
Meanwhile, crimes against society, such as transferring counterfeit money, the use of forged documents and arson, fell by 10.4 per cent to 258 cases.
There were 10 cases of juvenile crimes, compared with 16 cases in the corresponding quarter.
Illegal immigrants and over-stayers caught in the first three months saw a decrease of 31 per cent totalling 8,678. Among the over-stayers, 7,565 were from the mainland and 686 were from overseas. There were 427 mainland residents who entered Macao illegally during the quarter.
Regarding taxi irregularities, there were 1,724 prosecutions, including 512 cases of overcharging (29.7%) and 381 cases of refusing to take passengers (22.1%). The latest figure, surpassing last year’s total of 1,666 cases, was the result of joint efforts made by the city’s supervising bodies for taxi services, the Judiciary Police and the Transport Bureau.
Mr Wong said there was room for improvement in maintaining public security, but the statistic showed effectiveness of measures taken this year, pledging the Government would keep close attention to the latest trend of crime and crime-combating.
