Hong Kong - MTR

Crime and insecurity
In spite of the high utilization of the metro system, there is a remarkably low level of criminal occurrences. In 1993, there were only 274 reported criminal cases, 112 of which involved incidents of indecent assault. Vandalism and graffiti are almost absent in the MTR system. In 1993, there were only 8 known cases of vandalism. The significance of this success becomes even more apparent when the figures are compared to the crime rates of other metro systems. When compared to the metro system of São Paulo (which in itself is also a very good example of effective crime management), for example, the total number of 274 reported criminal cases in Hong Kong is compared to 3,600 cases in São Paulo. One must be reminded that the metro system of São Paulo is comparable to Hong Kong in terms of track length (43.3 km) and a passenger numbers a day (2.3 million) as well.

Source: López, M.J.J., Crime Prevention Guidelines for the Construction & Management of Metro Systems, Den Haag: RCM-advies 1996, pg. 32-35.

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