Crimes in Delhi up over 8% this year
While police officers attributed the spike to allowing citizens to register FIRs online, residents said the rise home burglaries is a matter of concern for the national capital
Cases of crime reported in Delhi till July 15 this year increased by 8.1%, compared to same period last year, according to statistics shared by the Delhi Police on Wednesday, showing a broad increase across most categories in 2022.
The data showed that cases of theft at homes registered maximum increase, with 7,561 instances compared to 1,158 last year. In 2021, 2,485 home burglaries were reported for the entire year.
Instances of heinous crimes like murder, robbery, kidnapping for ransom saw an almost 13% increase in the first six months of 2022 compared to the corresponding period last year. Cases of non-heinous crimes, such as snatching, burglary and vehicle theft, too went up by 8%.
The city witnessed 277 cases of murder, an almost 18% rise from 235 in 2021. A total of 473 cases of attempt to murder were registered in 2022 and 360 such cases were registered in 2021.
The cases of robbery have gone up from 1,110 in 2021 to 1,221 in 2022, the data showed.
Snatching, often regarded as a gateway crime and one of the parameters of how safe are the city streets for the residents, also reported a marginal increase from 4,468 cases in 2021 to 5,024 in 2022, according to the data.
While police officers attributed the spike to allowing citizens to register first information reports (FIR) online, residents said home burglaries in the national capital have become a “real problem” and the actual number may be higher.
“When Covid-19 pandemic hit, anti-social elements would regularly scale walls and gates and pick a thing or two from the galleries of the houses. I remember people putting iron bars for safety, but the thefts continued.
The most we could do was install gates, but now the authorities call that encroachment so we are stuck. Police cannot take care of each and every household in a locality,” said BS Vohra, president of East Delhi RWAs Joint Front.
A second caveat is likely to be the outbreak of the devastating second wave of Covid- 19 in March-April last year, when the Capital went into a mostly selfimposed lockdown as the health care capacity buckled under a heavy load of cases.
Cases of vehicle theft in 2022 also reported an increase with 19,548 cases, compared to 18,814 last year. Delhi has been notorious for its high number of vehicles thefts. According to the 2019 National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report, a vehicle is stolen every 12 minutes in the city; while in Mumbai, one is stolen every four hours, and in Bengaluru, one is stolen every two hours.A special commissioner of police, who asked not to be named, said the data should not simply be looked at in terms of the rise in the number of cases, but in the perspective of the ease in registration of cases and the police force’s commitment to record and investigate crime.
“It’s a facility [e-FIRs] given to the people and it’s good but they use it as per their understanding. For instance, from experience of lower rank officers who investigate these cases, it has emerged that people confuse a lost item report with a house theft case, and lodge it online accordingly. But we understand that this is a new system and awareness will eventually increase,” the policeman said.
Deputy commissioner of police (north) Sagar Singh Kalsi also reiterated that the facility to register cases online has made the process easier and userfriendly. He added that people are being asked not to share information about their travel on social media until they return and to install anti-burglary equipment at their homes, even as the police force is keeping a close watch on repeat offenders.
DCP (Outer) Sameer Sharma said to curb the incidents of house theft they are launching night patrolling in collaboration with local residents in three police station jurisdictions where most cases were reported.