Cancellation of taxi licenses is a measure to consider, Wong says

Wong Sio Chak

The Secretary for Security, Wong Sio Chak acknowledged yesterday that increasing penalties for taxi drivers’ legal infractions will be considered. The possibility of the transgressors having their taxi license canceled is among those measures that could be implemented.

Wong voiced this possibility during the press conference held at his office yesterday morning which aimed to present the results of crime statistics for the first three quarters of 2017.

According to the data disclosed, crimes related to taxi infringements rose between January and September of 2017 by 24.5 percent when compared year-on-year with the same period of 2016. A total of 3, 781 cases, 743 cases more than that in the previous year, were registered. In 57.3 percent of these cases, the infringement was related to overcharging. Other common taxi infractions were refusing to provide transportation.

Questioned on the reasons for such a change of behavior (that had been noted as decreasing in the previous assessments), Wong said, “we never stopped pursuing this goal [of reducing legal infractions of taxi drivers]. It’s a fact that we had been registering a decrease and then [suddenly] we registered again an increase that was not what we expected.” He added, “maybe it has to do with the sanction being too light and the process to enforce it too long. Maybe we should consider the cancellation of the [taxi] licenses. But this is a matter that is not in the hands of the Public Security Police Force (PSP). We have to coordinate with the other entities responsible for this,” he concluded.

The Secretary also acknowledged that such crimes are not easy to detect and demand a great effort by the authorities, as “police officers must be in plain-clothes not wearing any uniform and require some support to perform these actions.”

Coincidently, the period when the police started registering a renewed increase of crimes related to taxi drivers’ infringements correlated with the period folllowing the car-hailing service provider Uber’s exit from Macau. Wong noted that Uber had been fined a total of 1,158 times during the same period.

Another hotly discussed topic during the press conference was the measures that the authorities are calling the six gaming concessions and sub-concessions to enforce regarding terrorism threats. These measures are relevant considering the recent events that occurred in Manila, the Philippines and Las Vegas, USA.

Wong said he did not have a concrete schedule for the enforcement of the new measures. “It is the DICJ [Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau] that is in charge of coordinating such work,” he said.

Nevertheless, Wong advanced that the measures proposed by the government to the gaming industry should pass through the acquisition of “inspection equipment” and added security staff members who should cover all entries and exits from the gaming venues.

Wong also revealed that it had been proposed that the casinos should have a “Special Security Task Force” (tentative name) that should have two roles; readiness to intervene in emergency situations and providing help and access to the police authorities when necessary.

Questioned on whether such a group should be armed, Wong replied: “It’s too soon to discuss if they will be armed or not. The Macau law only allows police officers to carry guns during their operations.” He additionally noted, “[the added security measures] – it’s an added expense to the gaming operators – but it’s also one of their duties to provide enough security to both staff and visitors.” Wong left the question of when these measures will be entering into force to be answered by the DICJ.