LAHORE: Street crime has witnessed a sharp increase in the provincial metropolis in recent times. The rise in the street crime incidents is reportedly due to two major factors – 1,000 hardened criminals are behind most of the reported cases and the 30 police stations share 69 percent of the total crime which were included the category ‘A’ because of the crime concentration. There are 85 police stations in the city. Some of the 30 police stations have become impossible to manage due to the high percentage of crime and vast jurisdictions.

There is an equal number of category ‘B’ police stations which report 23pc of the total annual crime while those falling in category ‘C’ report eight percent crime.

An official report on Lahore, a copy available with Dawn, showed disturbing crime figures/statistics, painting a dismal picture of the high crime rate. The report suggested that the annual crime incidence of the provincial capital had increased from 125,000 reported cases in 2020 to 225,000 in 2021.

Thirteen hundred motorcycles and 30 vehicles were stolen or snatched during the recent March. On average, three houses and as many shops were robbed every day in Lahore.

Crime rate in city goes up by about 80pc in a year

The report showed Kahna, one of the largest police stations of the city, being on the top for many decades. Last year, it reported 6,109 cases, more than the eight districts of the province. The Kahna circle, housing three police stations, including Nishtar and Kot Lakhpat, reported 16,004 crime cases during 2021. The incidence of the crime was more than those recorded in 25 districts of the province, the report said and added that the Civil Lines Division, housing five circles and 11 police stations, reported 20,358 crime cases in the year. The report said the crime in the division was more than the annual crime of 28 districts of the province.

The report stunned many by highlighting that the last year’s reported crime of the City Division of Lahore was 43,260, more than any district of the province except Faisalabad that had reported 46,572 crime incidents in a year.

After Kahna, the Shahdara, Factory Area, City Raiwind, Kot Lakphat were the largest police stations where most of the crime was reported due to the ‘unmanageable boundaries’.

Giving the example of high crime rate in Shahdara Police Station during a week period, it said, 25 motorcycles were stolen, six others were snatched at gunpoint and 17 incidents of robberies were committed. In Factory Area police limits, the robbers snatched seven motorcycles and committed eight street crimes during a week.

Despite the high crime rate, a senior police officer said that the Lahore police authorities had introduced many strategies to address the challenging situation.

“The police experts have identified several crime hotspots in each of the police stations and noted the time occurrence of incidents,” he said.

Police replaced the SHOs of all the A category police stations with the best officers and exempted all the other staff of these police stations from all the security and law & order duties, giving them instructions to shift entire focus on the street crime in their jurisdictions.

“We have pointed out 150 top beats in all the 85 police stations of the city and dedicated 300 teams of the Dolphin Squad and Police Emergency Response Units for their redeployment in these beats,” the officer said and added that 150 special operation teams of the trained police personnel had also been formed for the hotspots. He claimed that police identified 1,000 hardened criminals who were declared the ‘habitual offenders’ as they were committing crime repeatedly after securing bail from courts or getting released from jails.

The crime profiles with necessary details had been circulated to all the divisional SPs to ensure their arrest. The investigation wing had also been directed to make sure that these criminals would get punishments from the courts as the high conviction rate was the best option to bring the crime rate down.

The officer said the SHOs have been directed to ensure effective checking of motorcycles on roads had been the best strategy to prevent 97pc of the street crime.

“Lahore police higher-ups were daily conducting daily crime analysis while talking feedback from the police stations these days”, the official said, hoping that abovementioned steps would help police bring down the crime rate soon.

Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2022