Hong Kong Police Seek Subway Gropers

In a subway system so safe that there were only 11 robberies in 1989, the police have set up special squads to target Hong Kong’s most serious underground crime: groping of women.

At least 160 men were arrested last year for offenses ranging from a sharp pinch to heavy fondling.

“It is an offense which we take seriously,” said Senior Supt. Iain Grant, who heads the 250-member police contingent assigned to the 38-station, 25-mile subway system.

“You’ll feel the hands go on you, trying to do something dirty,” said Sandra Wong, 38, a clerk. “It usually happens on one of the long tunnels between stations.”

With 169 complaints last year, indecent assault is more frequent than all other reported subway crimes. It is classified as a felony punishable by up to five years in jail, but most offenders get fines of less than $100.

In Hong Kong, which is sexually quite conservative, it is a problem that is rarely discussed.

“Yes, it has happened to all my girlfriends, but we don’t talk about it,” said Jane, a 34-year-old secretary at an American bank. “It is embarrassing, and if it isn’t serious it is better just to forget about it.”

Grant targeted the crime when he took over the subway police district in August on the hunch that it was more common than 1989’s 84 complaints indicated. The first day, the team made four arrests.

“That convinced me,” he said in a rich Scottish burr. “I don’t believe it is rampant, but common sense tells you the majority of incidents go unreported.”

Subways here often are crowded, especially at rush hour, when passengers are cheek to jowl, the perfect environment for gropers.

“It is worst in the morning, coming from Kowloon in the tunnel,” said Jane, who spoke on condition that her last name not be used.

The criminals are mostly in their 20s and early 30s and “come from the whole range of society,” Grant said.

Said Jane: “Sometimes he looks like a gentleman, sometimes like a thug. Usually it is not serious; they just grab, and if you stare at them they stop.”

The police teams--officially “district action squads” but “grope squads” in station-house parlance--are a mixture of plainclothes and uniformed constables and sergeants. There are several women officers, but they are assigned to act as witnesses--not as bait, for fear of an entrapment defense.

Grant sends teams of 12 to 50 officers on sweeps every couple of days. They move in to make an arrest when they see a grope or hear a shout.

Grant admits that he is lucky to be able to devote personnel to such offenses. The crime statistics for the first 10 months of last year included 69 picked pockets, 41 thefts, 16 robberies, 24 fights and five purses snatched. There has not been a reported rape in the subway within memory, police said.

“I’m a police officer, and I don’t feel safe in the London underground and can’t imagine New York,” Grant said. “Hong Kong is relatively crime-free, and the MTR (Mass Transit Railroad) is especially crime-free. Here, I feel safe.”

The subways here are clean. The corridors and platforms are wide and well-lit, with no posts or menacing shadows. The ceilings are dotted with closed-circuit television cameras.

“This is a state-of-the-art system,” Grant said, pointing out that the subway opened in 1979. “We designed crime out of it. It is wide open. There is no excuse to loiter anywhere. There are no public toilets, no shops except at the (entrance) kiosk.”

The fares, which vary with the length of the ride, range from 38 cents to 85 cents and are paid with computer cards. Although the system covers only a small portion of the colony, there are more than 2 million riders a day, a statistic authorities extrapolate to claim that 16% of Hong Kong’s 6 million people ride the trains every day.

By contrast, New York’s subway system, with 722 miles of track, is 29 times as long and carries 3.5 million daily riders, or 1.75 times as many as Hong Kong’s. The New York system also has 20 times as many robberies in a week as the Hong Kong system had in 1990.