Despite the number of recent high profile crimes in Macau, security is working better than ever. That’s the message the commissioner-general of the Unitary Police Service, Ma Io Kun, shared on a recent interview on local television station TDM.
The recent cases he’s referring to were stabbing outside the Four Seasons Macau and the high profile robbery at the same resort. Those crimes got a lot of attention in the press, but they aren’t a sign of a greater crime wave in the city. “Although these cases that happened inside a casino—or in its surroundings—are individual cases, it does ring an alarm to us,” Ma said.
He pointed to the positives that each case showed. The local police were quickly able to arrest suspects in each case, and prevented any further activities by the suspected criminals.
One of the panelists on the show openly questioned their confidence. He felt that the casino security might have been relaxed a bit too much in recent years, and more should be done to keep visitors safe. He added:
“One or two years ago, some organisations had raised the questions of whether those security guards who were of an older age should be kept. Looking at the (recent) chips robbery case, these guards may not be physically capable of coping with these emergency cases regards. There are potential uncertainties in their daily works. They need to be physically capable of coping with the emergency incidents.”
Still though, Ma stressed that the overall crime statistics have improved in recent years, with kidnappings, murders and serious assaults all having very low numbers, and stable baseline of approximately 14,000 crimes per year since 2016.
Still though, even if crime is not increasing, high profile stabbings and robberies are going to affect the public perception, and tourism. Understanding that to some degree, Ma told the panel, “We will continue to assess if [the incidence of] these types of crimes worsen, and bring on a negative impact to the security of the community here.”
