Hong Kong remains one of the safest cities in the world and its crime situation is stable despite the fact that the crime rate in 2006 had gone up slightly, Commissioner of Police Tang King-shing said yesterday.

While the rate of certain types of criminal offences was on the rise last year, the rate of robbery cases was on the decline.

Addressing a year-end press conference, Tang, who just took up his new post last week, yesterday said there were as many as 81,125 criminal cases last year, up by 4.8 percent as compared with 2005. The overall crime rate was 1,159.8 out of a population of 100,000, while the overall detection rate and violent crime rate are 44.6 percent and 62.8 percent, up by 0.3 percent and 3.3 percent respectively compared against the previous year.

Earlier yesterday, Tang also attended the meeting of the Legislative Council Panel on Security to brief lawmakers on the crime situation in 2006.

Among other things, Tang expressed concern about the 4,704 family violence cases last year, which represented a sharp rise of 79 percent over the 2,628 cases in 2005.

"As a result of the tragic family violence case in Tin Shui Wai new town a few years ago, we have been working very closely with the Social Welfare Department (SWD) and set up a 24 hour hotline mechanism for police officers to obtain advice from them," he said. "We have adopted a multi-agency approach: protection of the victims, protection of the culprits if there is sufficient evidence and referral of the victims to the SWD and non-government organizations to obtain assistance. I have to stress that the police force alone cannot solve all the problems but we have provided special training to enhance the awareness and investigation skills of frontline police officers."

As for the current year, he was aware of a number of major international events, including the 10th anniversary handover celebrations and the Olympic Equestrian Trial. The SAR government has set up an ad hoc steering committee with the police force as part of the committee and there is also a special team responsible for these important events at the police headquarters.

On the subject of recruitment, deputy commissioner Fung Siu-yuen acknowledged it would be difficult for the police force to compete with the private sector at a time when the economy is picking up again.

"Wage is only one of the factors but not the only factor that makes a good job and I ask young people to set their sights on broader things," he said. "A job with the police force can be your lifetime career and again it is a very meaningful job through which you can contribute to the society. Given the various job nature, a job with the police force provides big development opportunities along with chances of overseas training and visits."