Police crack down on bike riders to tackle street crime

New Delhi: After analyses of reported street crimes — especially snatching and robbery — showed that most such crimes are committed by criminals riding motorcycles,

New Delhi: After analyses of reported street crimes — especially snatching and robbery — showed that most such crimes are committed by criminals riding motorcycles, the Delhi Police have started a crackdown on motorcycles that have riders and pillions in the age group where they may be active in crime.

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This initiative has been taken in a bid to curb street crimes and nab criminals, who have become violent and use firearms or other weapons even at the slightest of resistance shown by victims to their snatching bid.

“Local police, traffic and patrol van personnel are checking the motorcycles. They conduct searches of bikers, verify their documents and antecedents. If bikers are found violating traffic norms, they are fined. Those found carrying illegal weapons are booked as per law,” said Mandeep Singh Randhawa, Delhi Police spokesperson.

According to Randhawa, many other steps have been taken to control street crimes. He said that such reported crimes are analysed, mapped time-wise and area-wise on a daily basis by assistant commissioners of police (ACPs) of sub-divisions concerned. Possible escape routes in street-crime prone areas are ascertained and police pickets are placed at strategic locations to nab such criminals.

“The timings of police pickets are changed to bring about an element of surprise and is dependent on the time interval in which maximum crimes have taken place in the recent past. The call made to the police control room regarding street crimes are also taken into account while designing the dynamic picketing system,” Randhawa added.

Delhi Police data shows that snatching and robberies have seen a marginal downward trend in the last two years. A total of 6,003 snatching and robbery cases have been registered till September 15 this year, which is 7.20% less than what was reported last year. Last year, police had registered 6,469 such cases during the same period.

“A major challenge has been the fact that almost 95% of those involved in such crimes are first-timers. As a long-term measure, the ‘Yuva’ Scheme has been started in many affected areas to wean away youth from the path of delinquency,” said Randhawa.