Crime in digital era poses new

challenge
It is good the police force has set up a dedicated unit to

handle phone and email scams but challenges remain,

such as recruiting the right talent and educating the

public
The citys crime rate or crimes per 100,000 people fell from 1,061
in 2012 to 825 last year, according to research funded by the
Correctional Services Department. The estimated cost to the
community in legal processes, rehabilitation and crime prevention
was at least HK$380 billion. But savings of more than HK$75 million
were attributed to rehabilitation schemes, based on a drop in the
reoffending rate.

The cost remains staggering. Yet we are seen to live in a safe city.
That the crime rate dropped by about 20 per cent and rehabilitation
the ultimate goal of the criminal justice system made a significant
contribution reinforces how fortunate we are compared with a lot of
other places. But we need to be prepared to rise to the challenges of
the digital age. The police force is trying to do so through a new anti-
fraud coordination unit. This followed 760 reports of phone and email
scams and other deceptions in the first half of this year.

With police recovering less than 10 per cent of the losses in such
scams, they said the new unit would enhance cooperation with banks
and other law enforcement agencies to recover money and combat
laundering. Even though the overall crime rate was down, deception
cases rose by 200, or 6 per cent, to 3,561 in the first six months year
on year. The new unit will be responsible for strategy, intelligence,
coordination, support and public education.
There is a touch of irony to the objective of cooperation with financial
institutions, which compete with the police for the services of people
with forensics or hi-tech anti-fraud expertise. Since they are not
constrained by government pay structures or relativities, these
institutions can pay whatever it takes to recruit talent, after he or she
has been trained at the expense of the taxpayer. The demand is such
that some talents set up independent consultancies to government
and the private sector.

The new unit is welcome but it will need to be properly resourced to

compete on a level playing field with other security customers. While
we have to expect to pay more to combat a rapidly growing form of
crime, educating the public remains the key and officials are right to
have made this one of the new police units responsibilities.