Crime review: Commissioner of Police Tang King-shing (left) reviews the 2009 law and order situation.

Law and order in Hong Kong remained stable last year, with the overall crime figure dropping 1.1% to 77,630, compared to 78,469 the year before.

Reviewing last year's crime situation at a press conference today, Commissioner of Police Tang King-shing said the overall crime rate stood at 1,108 cases, down 1.5%. The detection rate was 45.6%, the same as in 2008.

There were 14,193 violent crimes, down 1.6%. Criminal cases recording a drop included robbery (-20.9%), theft from vehicles (-15.3%) and arson (-13.9%). There were no robberies with genuine firearms.

Burglaries on residential and non-residential buildings dropped 6% to 4,489, the lowest figure since 1973.

A total of 2,351 triad-related crimes were recorded, down 1.1%. The number of juveniles aged 10 to 15 and young people aged 16 to 20 arrested totalled 8,690, down 3.5%. Their offences included miscellaneous theft, wounding and serious assault.

Drug cases

Mr Tang said although the number of serious narcotics cases fell 1.2% to 2,929, the figure is still on the high side. Of them, 86% involved psychotropic drugs in which ketamine occupied 63.4% with a rise of 2.8% to 1,598 cases in 2009. Heroin cases fell to 398, down 3.6%.

Last year saw 3,697 people arrested for serious drug cases, down 0.6%. Of them, 30.2% were young people, including 240 students (+14.8%). Drug cases on school campuses rose to 24.

Mr Tang said Police will collaborate with other government departments, and Mainland and overseas authorities to crack down on drug sources, and will target drug activities, particularly those involving youths.

Rise categories

There were 47 homicides last year, a rise of 11 cases or 30.6%. More than half of them were related to domestic violence or killings between relatives. In 32 cases the culprits knew their victims.

The number of rapes also rose 29.5% to 136, in which victims of 95.6% of the cases knew the offender, while in 104 cases the victims and their attackers were friends. The victims were under 16 years old in 31 cases, six cases more than the previous year.

Rises were also seen in pickpocketings (15.1%) and shop thefts (14.9%). Deception cases surged 10.3% to 5,130 - in which more telephone deception (+66 cases) and deception involving loss and stolen credit cards (+149 cases) were registered.

There were 2,338 cases of criminal intimidation, up 20.9%. Of them, 26% concerned domestic violence, 3.6% were triad-related, 21.7% were related to debt collection activities, and the remaining 48.8% were caused by disputes.

Youth protests

When asked about recent demonstrations by youngsters, Mr Tang said Police respect people's right to protest and express their views, however, these activities must be conducted lawfully.

"Learning from the experience of the recent incidents, we want to enhance our communication with them, to start a dialogue with them, to get a better understanding of what they are intending to do, what they want to achieve, and how we can assist them to achieve their objective in staging a public meeting but in a lawful manner," Mr Tang said.

On the corrosive acid case in North Point this morning, Mr Tang said initial investigations show it was not a deliberate act and only a small amount of acid had dripped on the street. He added Police are taking seriously recent acid attacks, which remain under investigation.

"We are taking an all-direction, all-angle approach [in the investigation], leaving no stone unturned."