District council polls to see high-profile patrols
At least two officers will be stationed at each polling station for the district council elections on December 10, coupled with high-profile patrols in "strategic locations", the police commissioner revealed on Saturday.  The force's chief, Raymond Siu, said police officers are also ready to deal with emergency situations on election day.  "We will have at least two police officers stationed at each polling station, and step up high-profile patrols at strategic locations. We will also deploy plainclothes officers to see whether there is anyone suspicious nearby. Each district will have [officers from] the quick reaction force to handle emergencies," he said.  Separately, the police chief expressed concerns over a 51 percent jump in scam cases in the first nine months of this year, compared to the corresponding period in 2022. The 29,650 scam cases recorded involved losses of nearly HK$5 billion. He said people who transfer money via the city's Faster Payment System (FPS) would begin receiving alerts on Sunday if the party they're connecting with is included in a database linked to scam cases.  Staff members from 10 major banks would be stationed at the police's Anti-Deception Coordination Centre from Monday to assist with efforts to crackdown on scams, Siu added.  Siu noted that officers are looking into recent scam cases and called on the public to use the force's anti-deception tools.  Authorities earlier alleged that vendors claiming to sell dog meat online have used the product as a cover to trick people into downloading malicious mobile applications in order to swindle them, while there's a number of fake social media pages claiming to be travel agency EGL Tours.