Crimes soar by 12% in Delhi, but police say city is safer

All crimes categorised as heinous witnessed a dip of 23.43% in 2017, compared to the year before.

Crimes in Delhi increased by 12% in 2017 compared to the previous year, but Delhi Police on Thursday claimed that the city had become a lot safer because heinous crimes — like rapes, murders, robberies and snatchings — had decreased.

Delhi police commissioner Amulya Patnaik along with other senior police officers during an annual press conference in New Delhi on Thursday. (PTI)

Presenting the annual crime data at a press conference, police chief Amulya Patnaik, attributed the 12% increase in crime to registration of theft cases of all types.

While thefts reported from homes, on streets and other places rose by 37%, vehicle thefts went up by 6.5%. Together, these thefts accounted for nearly 70% of the 2,23,075 cases registered in Delhi last year.

Commissioner Patnaik attributed the increase in theft cases to the growing popularity of the online FIR registration facility that the police had launched in 2015.

All crimes categorised as heinous witnessed a dip of 23.43% in 2017, compared to the year before. Heinous crimes such as robberies, kidnapping for ransom and rioting decreased by more than 35% each.

Patnaik said that most crimes had come down because of police’s preventive efforts instead of reacting after an offence had been committed. He particularly credited the beat staff for the “improvement” in the crime rates.

“In 2017, one critical area we concentrated on was galvanising the beat system of policing. I personally interacted with the beat staff of all districts. For the first time, we inducted women beat officers for policing in vulnerable areas,” said Patnaik.

Last year, police said they also had other initiatives such as inducting Parakram (anti-terror vans), cycle patrols (for patrolling in parks and lanes), Prahari (seeking help from neighbourhood guards for policing) and Yuva (imparting skills to counter delinquency) that helped curb crimes.

Other senior officers said crimes had also decreased because of the special focus on seizing illegal weapons (up by 50%) and illicit liquor (seizure increased by 39%) last year. “Use of illegal firearms in crimes came down by over 6% because of our crackdown on arms dealers. Since public drinking also leads to crimes, we prosecuted nearly 25,000 for drinking in public places,” said RP Upadhyay, special CP (crime).

The police commissioner said that the traffic situation remained a concern but said that it was more due to increase in number of vehicles and the “lack of timely expansion” of the road network. The top cop said increasing the use of technology and police presence on the roads had helped in speeding up movement of vehicles.