Need stricter laws against street crimes such as snatching: Delhi’s top cop

Speaking on the Hindustan Times video show “Metro Matters”, Patnaik said street crimes such as snatching and robberies were on a decline due to measures such as improved visibility, identification of criminals and community- based policing.

As Delhi residents complain about frequent and violent incidents of snatching on city roads, Delhi’s police commissioner, Amulya Patnaik, said his force’s preventive strategies have started showing positive results but admitted that more needed to be done.

Delhi Police data showed a 5.41% decline in the number of cases of snatching and robberies reported from January to August 15 this year compared with the corresponding period in 2018. (Sushil Kumar/ HT file photo)

Speaking on the Hindustan Times video show “Metro Matters”, Patnaik said street crimes such as snatching and robberies were on a decline due to measures such as improved visibility, identification of criminals and community- based policing. Delhi Police data showed a 5.41% decline in the number of cases of snatching and robberies reported from January to August 15 this year compared with the corresponding period in 2018.

Patnaik, however, said there was a need for stricter laws against street crimes such as snatching – on the lines of Haryana – that would allow “harsher punishment” for such criminals. “Once booked [under a stricter law], it will be more difficult for snatchers to come out easily from jail. That will keep them out of circulation, and by virtue of harsher punishment, a clear message of deterrence will go out to criminals,” the commissioner said.

Patnaik said he had taken up the issue of amending the present law with the government. “It is a process that normally takes a little time because it is calling for legal amendments. I hope the government will realise the necessity of categorising snatching as an offence, which needs harsher punishment.”

Even as the amendment in the law is awaited, Patnaik said his force had been booking snatchers under the more stringent section of robbery whenever they used a weapon. Acknowledging that some of these incidents had been reported from busy public places, he said it wasn’t a “regular phenomenon”.

Patnaik said that in terms of crime per lakh population, Delhi’s crime rate was much less than international cities such as Washington. “You take the important crime heads of Washington -- rape, robberies, murders, total property crimes. It would be much higher, not less than five to six times higher than what would be the situation in Delhi,” the commissioner contended.

“As much as I would hesitate to say this, compare it [Delhi’s crime rate] with other international cities, we are quite okay.. it is not as alarming as it is being portrayed,” he said.

As snatchers are getting violent and using guns, Patnaik said Delhi Police’s specialised units such as the crime branch and special cell have been tasked to go after the sources of these illegal weapons, which he said, were being manufactured in other states and smuggled into Delhi through its porous borders.

The commissioner said such “habitual firearm peddlers” were being booked under stringent laws such as MCOCA because these were organised crimes. “Crimes by use of firearms have shown some kind of a decline and our seizure of firearms have shown a phenomenal jump,” he said.

Patnaik said the police were working on long-term strategies such as community-based action to keep vulnerable youth out of crime. “In 2017, we launched the YUVA scheme to identify vulnerable youngsters. We put them in skill development programmes so that they are not only taken out of a path of crime but given a skill so that they can earn a kind of honest livelihood.” These measures, he said, “are likely to pay dividends in the long run.”

Patnaik, who has been heading Delhi Police since January 2017, said the city is challenging for police because of its demographic complexities and by the virtue of being the national capital. “(There is a) floating population of a very high level on a day-to-day basis, proximate location of affluent colonies and underprivileged colonies. These are a few factors which do pose a challenge,” he said.

“Right from VIP security to even petty crimes, which get reported, we do come under much greater media scrutiny than any other police possibly would be. So all those things keep Delhi Police on its toes, which is a good thing...we are working hard,” Patnaik said.