Street crime in Delhi triples, a rape recorded every 4 hours

Street crimes in the city surged by 186% in 2014 with 12 cases reported every hour, up from four in 2013. The overall crime rate also doubled - 147,000 cases till December 15, 2014 - compared to the previous year.

Nearly 300 people were robbed, mugged or had their belongings snatched every day of the past year in Delhi, data released by the police said Friday, underlining the failure of the authorities in keeping the city’s roads safe.

Street crimes in the city surged by 186% in 2014 with 12 cases reported every hour, up from four in 2013. The overall crime rate also doubled – 147,000 cases till December 15, 2014 – compared to the previous year.

Crimes against women remained a worry with a rape reported every four hours and a molestation every two hours in the Capital. Number of rape cases grew to 2,069, up 32% from 2013 while cases of molestation jumped 25% to 4,179.

Percentage of crimes solved, however, plunged to an abysmal 29.5% from 48.86% in 2013. Culprits in only 26.96% of all snatching cases and 46.12% of robbery cases were brought to book in 2014, down from 47.24% and 75.56% respectively in 2013.

Delhi Police commissioner BS Bassi attributed the spurt in street crimes to police registering all complaints and police control room calls as FIRs, not turning away people to keep the crime graph down.

The number of investigating officers hadn’t kept pace with rising crime, causing the dip in number of cases solved, Bassi added. Delhi has around 84,000 officers policing its 1.67 crore population – a ratio of one cop per 200 people.

Amongst street crimes, robbery rose by a whopping 459% -- 18 cases daily or 6,180 overall – when compared to 2013 that reported 4 cases daily and 1,106 in total. Incidents of snatching also doubled from 3,316 in 2013 to 6,944 last year.

Bassi said the rise in cases was due to his batting for “truthful registration” of crime. “Last year, I urged we must stamp out the practice of burking from our functions since it is a major cause of public dissatisfaction. I now have no hesitation in saying reluctance to register cognizable crime has almost disappeared among Delhi Police officers,” he said.