Hà Nội police and their counterparts in Bắc Ninh, Hưng Yên, Ninh Bình, Phú Thọ and Thái Nguyên sign an agreement on coordinating security and public order work. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Police in Hà Nội and five neighbouring provinces signed an agreement on Tuesday to coordinate more closely against cross-provincial crime, with the minister of public security urging them to move beyond case-by-case cooperation.

The pact links Hà Nội police with their counterparts in Hưng Yên, Bắc Ninh, Ninh Bình, Phú Thọ and Thái Nguyên – the five localities that border the capital following the reorganisation of local administrative units. It aims to improve crime prevention and speed up responses to complicated problems along shared boundaries.

Minister of Public Security Gen. Lương Tam Quang and Hà Nội's Communist Party Secretary Trần Đức Thắng attended the ceremony.

Minister Quang said the forces had worked together for years, notably against organised crime and violations of environmental, natural-resource and fire-safety laws, but that deeper, more practical cooperation was now needed.

He called on police to coordinate regularly and proactively, with clear priorities, rather than simply exchanging information. He also said security work must support economic and social development, and that the pact’s success should be judged by concrete results backed by verifiable data.

The city's Party Secretary Thắng said economic growth, urbanisation, expanding road networks and population movement meant security risks no longer stopped at a single locality’s boundaries. Criminals could exploit transport links, cyberspace and gaps in information sharing to operate across provinces, he said.

He urged the six forces to treat security along their shared boundaries as a common task, with clear lines of responsibility covering who leads, who supports and how forces are mobilised in a crisis.

Priorities should include drugs, organised gangs, cybercrime, online fraud and counterfeit goods, he said, along with close monitoring of industrial parks, key infrastructure and major roads.

Hà Nội is investing in a network of more than 21,000 security cameras, due for completion this year, and wants neighbouring localities to gradually link up and share data within their legal authority while protecting information security and personal data, the official said.

According to a Hanoi police report, the six localities cover about 32,300sq.km and have more than 26 million residents. In the first 10 months of this year, Hà Nội police and neighbouring forces handled three cases in which 22 young people used roads along provincial boundaries to cause public disorder in the capital. Thirteen of them lived in Hưng Yên and seven in Phú Thọ.

Last year, Hà Nội police, with Public Security Ministry units and Phú Thọ police, uncovered five sand-mining cases on the Red River involving 27 people and eight vessels.

The agreement covers cooperation on national security and public order and safety, with the forces to share information and documents, deploy personnel and equipment, and hold regular and ad hoc meetings.

Hà Nội police will chair a joint review every two years. The six forces are set to draw up immediate implementation plans—establishing priorities, contact points, and procedures for cross-locality cases—while selecting a few pressing issues to tackle first with regular progress checks."

Hà Nội police will chair a joint review every two years. The six forces are to draw up implementation plans immediately, setting priorities, contact points and procedures for cases spanning more than one locality, and to pick a few pressing problems to tackle first, with regular checks on progress. — VNS