Hong Kong police arrested 300 people since national security law enactment 4 years ago

“The overall law and order situation was stable,” it added.

Beijing imposed the national security law on Hong Kong in June 2020 to prevent, stop and punish secession, subversion of state power, terrorism and foreign interference, after months of anti-government protests in the city.

A total of 300 people have been arrested under the law as of June 30 this year, up from 291 as of March 8, according to data.

Hong Kong also passed the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, mandated under Article 23 of the Basic Law – the city’s mini-constitution – in March this year, which complements the national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020.

Overall, police recorded 45,315 crimes in total during the first half of this year, up by 5.6 per cent from the same period last year. The overall detection rate stood at 26.3 per cent.

Major crimes that recorded increases this year included deception, theft, blackmail and burglary.

Deception cases accounted for 43.9 per cent of the total number of crimes, and the amount involved stood at HK$4.48 billion (US$575 million). Among them, 62.3 per cent were internet-related.

The force noted that scammers’ methods had evolved over time and there was a rise of criminals impersonating customer service staff of e-shopping and online payment platforms as well as telecommunications companies.

Police recorded a total of 1,605 such deception cases in the first half of this year, while another 1,111 of such cases were logged in July alone.

Over the first six months of this year, a total of 11 cases of homicide were recorded, down by five cases from the same period last year.

There were 1,821 cases of wounding and serious assault, a slight increase of 1.4 per cent over the same period last year. Among them, 9.3 per cent of the cases were triad-related.

Police said it had completed the installation of surveillance cameras at 15 locations in Mong Kok in April and was rolling out more in phases, with a target of 615 to be set up across the city within this year.

Newly installed cameras helped police detect 17 cases involving serious crimes as of the end of July, including homicide, robbery, wounding and possession of imitation firearms, with a total of 27 people arrested, it added.