Macau’s total number of reported crimes fell 13.9 percent to 9,799 last year, Secretary for Security Wong Sio Chak has announced.
Wong also said that last year’s total number of reported crimes represented a 30.9 percent decrease from the pre-pandemic year of 2019, when 14,178 suspected crimes were recorded.
Wong announced Macau’s 2022 crime statistics during a press conference at S. Francisco Barracks on Friday.
Friday’s press conference was also the first time that Wong had announced the official crime statistics in a press conference since the COVID-19 pandemic began to affect Macau in early 2020. During the past three years affected by the pandemic, Wong announced Macau’s quarterly, biannual and yearly crime statistics in statements.
According to historical statistics provided on the website of the Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC), the number of 9,799 crimes recorded last year was the lowest since 2005, when 10,538 crimes were reported. In addition, last year’s number of 9,799 crimes was also the first time that the yearly number of reported crimes was lower than the 10,000 benchmark since 2004, when 9,786 crimes were recorded.
Wong said during Friday’s press conference that he had decided to convene a press conference again to announce Macau’s crime statistics after considering that Macau’s COVID-19 situation has subsided since early this year, which came after the local government had adjusted its anti-COVID-19 approach.
Macau suffered its first peak of widespread COVID-19 infections around the Christmas holiday resulting from the local government’s decision to abandon its dynamic zero-COVID approach on December 8, but the city’s COVID-19 situation has markedly improved since around the middle of January.
Wong pointed out that Macau recorded 14,178, 10,057, 11,376, and 9,799 suspected crimes in 2019, 2020, 2021 and last year respectively, adding that last year’s total number of crimes dropped 13.9 percent from 2021, 2.6 percent from 2020, and 30.9 percent from 2019.
According to Wong, the police recorded 153 violent crimes last year, 40 percent down from 2021, 37 percent down from 2020, and 77.3 percent down from 2019.
Only 1 homicide, but 2 victims
Wong noted that one homicide was recorded last year. The homicide case involving two victims was reported in May, when two female mainlanders were found to have been murdered in a hotel guestroom. Wong noted that the male suspect, also a mainlander, returned to the mainland shortly after the case, and Macau’s police identified him through their citywide CCTV camera system and reported the case to their mainland counterparts. The suspect was arrested in Hunan province later the same month.
The police recorded just one case of grievous bodily harm last year, a decrease of five cases from 2021. No kidnapping was reported last year.
According to Wong, the police recorded 12 robbery cases last year, 61.3 percent down from 2021, 53.8 percent down from 2020, and 85 percent down from 2019.
Rape down, but child sex abuse up
The police recorded 21 rape cases last year, representing a decline of 30 percent from 2021, 27.6 percent from 2020, and 51.2 percent from 2019, Wong said.
However, 27 child sexual abuse cases were recorded last year, representing an increase of 50 percent from 2021, 12.5 percent from 2020, and 145.5 percent from 2019, Wong said.
In 2019, only 11 child sexual abuse cases were reported.
Iris recognition at e-channels
Meanwhile, Wong said that iris recognition will be used at 10 e-channels in the Barrier Gate border checkpoint on a trial basis after June this year.
Currently, e-channels at the city’s border checkpoints are only equipped with fingerprint scanners, i.e., fingerprint recognition is the only biometric-data way of verifying the identity of travellers using e-channels.
In addition to presenting an ID card, those using e-channels at the city’s border checkpoints have to provide biometric data, i.e., fingerprints currently, to pass.
Wong noted that iris recognition will enable travellers to pass e-channels without touching the screen with their thumb. He added that fingerprint recognition would facilitate the spread of “viruses”, i.e., transmissible diseases.
Wong said that the “contactless” use of e-channels would certainly be the new trend in the future.
Wong underlined that after the iris recognition comes into use, travellers using e-channels can continue to choose fingerprint recognition.
Secretary for Security Wong Sio Chak addresses Friday’s press conference at the S. Francisco Barracks about the city’s 2022 crime statistics. – Photo: GCS
