• Says 58 citizens killed by robbers between Jan 1 and May 31, 17 ‘killers’ gunned down in encounters with police
• 34 teams set up for crackdown on scrap dealers involved in stolen vehicle trade

KARACHI: Amid widespread backlash, police authorities have decided to control growing street crime in the metropolis and set up special teams to collect and analyse data from the closed-circuit television camera footage with the help of latest technology.

Speaking to Dawn, Inspector General of Sindh Police Ghulam Nabi Memon said street crimes particularly robbery with murder and robbery with injury were major challenges for the police department. However, he claimed that due to serious efforts of police, the crime rate was gradually “declining in the city”.

He said that as per crime data maintained by police and the Citizens Police Liaison Committee a total of 58 citizens were shot dead by robbers between Jan 1st and 31st May 2024 whose 56 cases were registered. Out of them, 41 cases have been detected while 17 alleged street criminals involved in these killings were gunned down in ‘encounters’ and 53 others were arrested, the officer added.

During the same five months, a total of 197 people were injured by robbers whose 155 cases were registered. Out of them, 99 cases have been detected as 19 suspects involved in injuring citizens during robberies were gunned down in ‘encounters’ and 125 others were arrested, the police chief said.

“Thus, the detection of street crimes is 70pc, which shows that the police are working.”

Sharing more data, Mr Memon said that 252 street crime incidents took place per day in month of January, 251 in Feb, 251 in March, 189 in April and 151 in May while during the initial days of month of June, over 100 incidents of street crimes took place per day.

“This shows a gradual decline of street crimes and there are three main reasons behind this.”

First, special police teams were established to collect CCTV footage and analyse them. The suspects were identified and targeted actions were taken owing to which a significant number of street criminals were arrested.

A majority of alleged street criminals were arrested with the help of CCTV footage.

Mr Memon recalled that 900-1,000 suspected street criminals were being arrested per month previously, but now 1,300 such suspects were being arrested each month.

Second, as per a report of the Special Branch of police, 30pc snatched/stolen cars and motorbikes were taken out of the city to other parts of the country for sale while 70pc of such vehicles were being sold to scrap dealers in the metropolis. There were estimated to be 3,000 scrap dealers out of which, 354 were involved in the purchase of snatched/stolen cars and motorcycles.

The IG said 34 police teams were established to launch a crackdown on such dealers. Each team of the police were given a list of 10 scrap dealers who took proper actions because of which 100 such dealers were arrested and booked. “Thus, snatching/stealing of vehicles has reduced by 30pc as there is no ‘disposal’ of such vehicles now.”

Third, Rapid Response Force policemen have been deployed at entry/exit points on highways while CCTV cameras have also been installed to monitor vehicles with special feature of recognition of number plates, he added.

He said there were 40 toll plazas, including 18 within the remit of Karachi where 10 to 20 cameras had been installed at each toll plaza. Besides, a separate package with the name of S-4 worth Rs1.4 billion was being launched for the 37-kilometre-long Northern Bypass under which cameras would be installed at 11 points to control crime.

Snatched/stolen cell phones

Similarly, a crackdown on buyers of snatched/stolen cell phones has also been launched, which has helped control this category of street crime up to 50pc, claimed the IG.

Mr Memon recalled at the start of this year, 81 mobile phones were being snatched per day, which were reduced to 45 per day in May, but during the initial days of this month of June, the incidents of mobile phone snatching have been reduced to 20-30 per day.

The IG said investigation was being improved to get around 5,000-6,000 arrested street criminals convicted by courts. He said robbery-with-murder cases were being transferred to dedicated investigation officers of the special investigation unit (SIU) while 60 officers had been selected for robbery-with-injury cases. Their expertise has been built up and only one case is being given to each investigation officer with provision of facilities like computers, he said.

The IG revealed that the Sindh government could earmark Rs220 million for investigation purposes in the forthcoming provincial budget.

A software has been developed and coordination with Sindh Bank has been done under which 15 types of expenditure during investigation, including protection of witnesses, would be made through use of a card.

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2024