1 .

Pursuant to Article 198 of the Criminal Code, and save those cases wherein the value of the stolen goods or the amount involved does not exceed 500 Patacas, burglary is classified as aggravated theft. Bearing in mind that the aggravated theft is a public offence, even if the victim does not wish to proceed against the offender, the competent authorities shall, once the case come to their knowledge and, in line with their jurisdiction, initiate criminal proceedings, thus causing an investigation.
Considering that the victim of the burglary is the one who suffered direct damages, his/her statement is particularly relevant for the investigation. Hence, and in the light of the law, the victim must cooperate in the investigative proceedings by making a formal statement, in order to swiftly solve the case and subject the culprit to punishments provided by law, thus avoiding reincidence that would lead to more people being harmed. Therefore, citizens must be more self-motivated in filling complaints, and be cooperative in actions taken by the judiciary institutions, in order to facilitate the handling of the tasks that the law entrusted them with.

2 .

Pursuant to the Criminal Code, this particular victim may sue the offender for actionable words. However, and considering that actionable words is a private offence, the Code of Criminal Proceedings provides that in such cases criminal proceedings would only take place, should the victim or his legal counsel files a private bill of indictment. This is to say that although the police would prepare the evidence for the prosecution in a lawsuit, based on the actual facts of the case, Article 39 of Code of Criminal Proceedings provides that criminal proceedings against the offender shall only take place after the submission of a private bill of indictment to the court, within the legal term, and the victim shall be responsible to appoint his own lawyer, should this be his/her decision..

3 .

The whole evidence would help the judge examining the case during the trial. Hence, when criminal police institutions (i.e. this Police) or the judiciary (judges, examining magistrates, and the Public Prosecutors Office) decide, by way of a statement, instruction or a court order, that the item shall be brought to the trial as an exhibit, such an item is subjected to be seized to serve as a material evidence. On the other hand, when the judiciary decides not to seize the item or when the sentence is transiting in rem judicatam, the alluded item shall be returned to its rightful owner. To sum up, we shall say that the chances for the victim to retrieve the mobile phone before the case has transited in rem judicatam depends on the decision of the judiciary regarding the need to size such an item to use it as a material evidence, or not.

4 .

To perform the legal tasks of criminal investigation, this Police have the right to seek support from any individual or corporate body (such as firms), as well as try to find leads from any person, in order to identify the culprit and reconstruct the case. However, it ought to be borne in mind that those individuals who are acquainted with the procedural details are compelled to obey the principal of justice secrecy during the course of the investigation. They must not, at any circumstances, publish or reveal to a third party any material related to the proceedings, to avoid jeopardizing the investigative efforts. Therefore, we shall stress that without a previous consent from the judiciary (judges, examining magistrates, and the Public Prosecutors Office), when this Police ask the citizens to provide information, it will not, as a rule, reveal the details of the case, which investigation is ongoing.

5 .

The internal regulation of this Police provides that criminal investigators and assistant-technicians of criminalistic must wear jackets with the JP description while working outdoors, so that citizens could easily recognize the personnel from this Police. Nonetheless, and according to the law, this police are a criminal investigation body, which duty carries the feature of being continuous to protect the law and order, as well as the safety of the residents. Therefore, in cases of emergency, the staff of this Police, no matter if they are on duty or not, must act swiftly and decisively. That's why, after they identify themselves (by producing their identity cards), citizens should render them any assistance that they might stand in need and follow their instructions, in order to smooth the progress of the duties carried out by this Police. Similarly, should citizens find someone pretending to be a staff member of this Police, they shall promptly make a report by dialling 993.

6 .

The PJ Service Provider and Complaint Centre provides a service to allow people to follow up the development of the proceedings of their own concern, and the person intervening in a case needs only to call at the Service Provider and Complaint Centre to fill out a form, and he/she will get a reply within 2 working days. Bearing in mind that it is not possible for us to verify the identity of the person who made the request over the phone, and to the advantage of the person intervening in the case or the one of the accuser, and based on the principle of the justice secrecy, we do not accept requests over the phone to follow up the development of any proceedings. Should the above-referred person wish to be briefed on the development of the case, he/she may call, during office hours, at the Service Provider and Complaint Centre at Rua Central, JP Building, G/F, Block C to comply with the requirements.

7 .

The confirmation of the personal details of the accuser, as well as the means to get in touch with him/her, is a compelling exercise during such time that the complaint is filled with the Judiciary Police, and it is part of the requirements provided by the Code of Criminal Proceedings. Apart from this, such a practice will ensure a swift response and a proper handling of the piece of evidence that the citizen had provided. In the wake of what has been said, staff members of this Police, while processing the record of the report (commonly known by statement taking), on top of the demand to produce a valid identification document, the accuser must, unequivocally, state his real name, as well as those of his parent, date of birth, marital status, occupation, residential address, contact number, numbers of the valid identification documents, and other personal details, to which his/her own signature shall be appended to validate such statements, thus assuring that personal data of the accuser was properly recorded by this Police. The cooperation between citizens and the police is vital for the police to boost the protection of the society. Hence, it is importance that citizens get more familiar with our legal responsibilities and law enforcement works. Ultimately, this will strength the confidence between citizens and police forces, which, in the end, will lead to the fulfilment of the goals concerning mutual cooperation between police and citizens, as well as social harmony and tranquillity.

8 .

According to the law, whenever citizens file a complaint, this Police have to process a complaint report (commonly known by statement taking). Once the inquiries are concluded, the case is submitted to the Public Prosecutors' Office, which has the jurisdiction to supervise criminal investigations and to decide as to weather or not charges should be laid on each particular case. Prior to any decision, and should the Public Prosecutors' Office considers that it will be necessary to verify the authenticity and suitability of the evidence gathered during the inquiries, it may, in light of the Code of Criminal Proceeding, summon victims and/or witnesses to make further statements. Therefore, it may happen that one has to once again fulfill his duty of making a statement. In order to be successful in suppressing crimes, citizens are encouraged to testify against offenders, and cooperate in the criminal proceedings to easy the task of this Police and that of the judiciary in such proceedings.

9 .

When criminal police institutions learn about a crime, they must start the preliminary proceedings within the deadline that the law provides. One of the most important tasks is to secure the evidence. Every piece of information will assist to expose and substantiate the facts related to a crime, thus helping to reveal the truth. Hence, and in light of the Code of Criminal Proceedings, the Judiciary Police, being one of the criminal police institutions, may, under certain and urgent circumstances, take action to secure any piece of evidence, including information gathering from any person who might be in the position to help it to locate the culprit or to reconstruct the crime, even before it receives instructions from the judiciary to conduct enquiries.
When this Police does not know the full identification details of a citizen, or is unable to summon him/her by ordinary procedures, and after taking into account the relevancy of the pending case and the significance that the statement of such a person might mean to the inquiries of unlawful acts or to the findings of infringements, it has no other alternative but to notify the competent authorities posted at Macau border check-points and ferry terminals to intercept the concerned citizen.
To stress this point, we shall remind that the police might, at any time, intercept any person who is a defendant in ongoing proceedings, through the above-referred practice.

10 .

Counterfeiting in currency is an offence, and making use of counterfeited currency with intent is also a crime.
Any person that had suffered damages form any of these two practices is entitled to take civil action and demand compensation damage from the offender. According to provisions of The Code of Criminal Proceedings, the victim is entitled to claim a compensatory damage from the culprit, providing that such a claim is well substantiated. Usually, the claim for compensatory damage is pleaded in the criminal proceeding, and the right of the victim shall not be affected, regardless if he/she had or had not appointed a lawyer, or could not appointed one. However, and save the provisions of the special statute, the victim's claim for a compensatory damage cannot be pleaded through a separate civil law suit. The Code of Criminal Proceedings also provides that the injured person is the only one who is entitled to claim compensatory damages from the offender.

11 .

Macau laws provide that forgeries in documents or making use of forged documents are crimes. Both are considered to be public offences and the Prosecutors Office shall be the one to initiate criminal proceedings, even if the victim had not filed a formal complaint. This means that any person is entitled to file reports, should it come to their knowledge cases that involve forgeries in documents or making use of forged documents.
The complainant should provide to this Police every bit of information about the case, so as to enable the investigators looking into it thoroughly, and have it solved in the shortest period of time.
In the case in point, the suspected document and the related personnel details are being kept at the personnel management division. As such, the person who was sceptic about the genuineness of such a document cannot get hold of it.
Bearing this in mind, this Police would suggest that the person who has raised the question should let his/her boss know about the case. If the boss has doubts on the genuineness of such a document, he/she should then file a complaint with this Police as soon as possible.

12 .

The data and detailed information related to all sorts of criminal offences are to be seen in the information column of the website of this police. This police have a monthly publication on crimes in this column, which includes, amongst others, figures relating to complaints received and proceedings that have been accomplished, as well as statistics regarding several categories of serious crimes, amount of drugs seized, and number of persons brought before the Prosecutors Office.
In addition to the statistics related to the recent criminal cases, this police also provide figures of the previous year, coupled with diagrams for each type of criminal offence, so that the public could easily look into it.
Another column - under the title “Criminal Prevention” - was added to the website of this Police, which unveils to citizens and tourists the techniques that criminals make the most of to commit crimes related to stealing, robbery, deception, drugs, counterfeited currency, arson and illegal gambling. The same column also provides instructions on how they [citizens and tourists] should avoid being caught in awkward situations and become victims.
Citizens can browse and download such information in the website of this Police: http://www.pj.gov.mo.

13 .

One would ask: how easy would it be for the police to catch the swindler after a complaint was filed? If a complaint had not been filed, would the police take the initiative to develop investigative efforts and bring proceedings against the suspect later on?

Deception is a semi-public crime. First of all, the victim must file a complaint and request for an enquiry to determine the liability of the culprit. Based on this complaint, the police shall initiate the relevant criminal proceedings.
Still on the same question, we shall add that most of the swindlers had deceived several times over a long period. This is why, once the swindler is caught, and based on the complaint that was filed, the police may further its investigation to establish his/her eventual involvement in other cases relating to deception.
If victims of this type of cases do not file their complaints or request to pursue with enquiries to establish the liability of the culprits, and bearing in mind the nature of the crime under discussion, it's quite difficult to bring proceedings against the culprits, in the absence of a complaint filed by the victims.

“Law enforcement agencies have their limits, while the public support hasn't”.

Although the police are capable of carrying out expert investigation, supported by the latest scientific techniques, the backing and the involvement of the average citizen remain crucial to enable police officers to carry out their duties with success, in areas related to crime prevention and suppression. Hence, citizens should do their best to cooperate with the police, in order to protect themselves and help sustaining the social order. Citizens should promptly file a report with the police, should they sense that a case of deception is happening, and/or their family members, or even themselves, become victims of deception. The information that they provide to the police might prove to be vital to solve cases.
Bearing this in mind, we strongly appeal to citizens not to give up filing a report with the police, just because the amount involved was insignificant, or feel that is pointless for the purpose of recovering the damages that they incurred.
To succeed in actions related to crime prevention and suppression, it's absolutely necessary that the average citizen and the law enforcement agencies trust each other and be willing to reciprocate cooperation.