Thanks to lockdown, Bengaluru sees decline in crime rates

BENGALURU: The lockdown in the wake of Covid-19 has put habitual offenders and criminals out of action, Bengaluru police say, citing data that point to a fall in most categories of crime.
Chain snatching, mugging, vehicle theft and robbery are habitual offenders’ domain, but these crimes have considerably dipped over the past week, police officers say.TOI spoke to personnel from stations spread across the city to check how the pattern is unravelling.

While 24 incidents of chain snatching were reported in March 2019, the number was only 5 till March 26 this year. “We haven’t registered a single case of chain snatching last week,” confirmed personnel from Jnanabharathi and HSR Layout police stations.
The jurisdictions of these stations lie along Outer Ring Road, areas around which are regularly targeted by chainsnatchers. But the lockdown has deterred them as escaping won’t be easy given the huge police presence and absence of people from streets, the personnel pointed out.
Vehicle thefts, too, have come down sharply from 432 in March 2019 to 249 in the 26 days of this month.
While Upparpet, Madiwala, City Market and Banashankari police stations reported 55 vehicle thefts this month last year, the number was only 20 in the first 26 days of March. Most of this month’s vehicle thefts were reported in the first two weeks, personnel from these stations said.
Upparpet police personnel said: “We registered three cases of motor vehicle theft in the last week. Perhaps, this is the first time that such few number of cases have been reported. Generally, we register at least five vehicle theft cases a week.”
“Vehicle-ifters are finding it difficult to spot potential buyers. Usually, stolen vehicles are sold immediately. But now, fearing Covid-19, buyers of such vehicles have remained indoors. This is the main reason for the decrease in vehicle thefts. Secondly, many vehicles are stolen from parking lots and these places are literally empty now,” a police officer explained.
In March 2019, Koramangala, HSR Layout and Jnanabharathi police stations reported about 60 cases of mugging, chain snatching, mobile snatching and robbery. Hardly 25 cases were reported under the same heads from these stations in March 2020.
Upparpet police say they register at least 15 cases of theft every month from bus passengers at Majestic. “This time we registered seven such cases in the first two weeks of March,” he said.
But there has been a small rise in attempt-to-murder cases. A police officer said with the lockdown forcing people to stay home, old enmities could be surfacing and there’s enough time to settle scores.