LAHORE: Amid complaints that low conviction rate is still contributing a lot in releasing the hardened criminals in the provincial capital, the Punjab Safe City Authority (PSCA) prepared a data based upon the 2023-24 comparative study showing the Lahore operations police adopted new strategies to bring the crime rate down, including a decision to obtain surety bonds from the repeat offenders to restrict their criminal activities.

The police experts outlined some major reasons for the low conviction rate, including flawed investigation, weak prosecution and the lack of timely disposal of cases by the courts.

They said since no serious efforts were [ever] made to improve investigations of the cases to convict criminals, the average stay of the hardened dacoits in jails remained four to five months only.

On the other hand, the PSCA’s comparative analysis of [police helpline] 15 calls pertaining to the crime reported during the last 12 months (from October 2023 to September 2024) with the corresponding period (Oct 2022 to Sept 2023) reveals significant changes in crime statistics.

Low conviction rate highlighted as major challenge

An official said one of the major reasons behind the decline in the crime rate was that the operation wing police marked/identified 32 out of total 85 police stations of the city for contributing 65 per cent of the total crime in the provincial capital.

He said the police further worked and prepared a report regarding the peak crime timings and the hot crime spots in these 32 high crime reported police stations.

The police high-ups increased the number of Dolphin teams from 110 to 266 in order to focus the identified crime spots, the official said, adding that the human resource allocation of the Mohafiz Squad and Police Response Unit was also re-organised/re-viewed in the same way.

Similarly, the registration of fake FIRs was discouraged by directing the station house officers of all the 85 police stations. Like, they were directed to round up drug traffickers instead of drug addicts for lodging cases against them.

Following another major strategy, the posting criteria of SHOs was also reviewed, the official said.

He added that the SHOs with ‘tainted’ profile were replaced with some young police officers and those having experience of combating crime.

According to the report, in the year 2022-23, a total of 97,565 heinous crimes were recorded, while in 2023-24, the number dropped to 65,712, reflecting an overall 39pc reduction in heinous crimes.

It said the incidents of robbery and snatching marked a 36pc decrease with 37,102 cases reported in 2022-23 and 25,913 in 2023-24.

Regarding motorbike and car theft, the report said 45,571 calls were received in 2022-23 and 28,862 calls in 2023-24, indicating a 45pc decrease in theft calls.

A total of 1,670 motorcycles and cars were snatched from citizens in 2022-23, while the number decreased to 1,298 in 2023-24, reflecting a 25pc reduction in vehicle snatching incidents.

About burglary incidents, the PSCA report said 12,621 cases were reported in 2022-23 and 9,021 in 2023-24 and the safe city authority marked a 33pc decrease in this particular category of crime.

This comparative analysis highlights a notable improvement in overall crime reduction across multiple categories over the past two years.

The report also marked a 43pc improvement in the overall crime rate during the last three months despite the fact that the police have to face public order issues, protests, rallies, and other challenges in the city.

The authority issued a review of the data from the 15 calls over the months of July, August and September comparing it with that of last year reported during the same period.

In 2023, the report said, 60,213 crimes were reported during the above-mentioned three-month period in the city as compared to 34,673 reported during the same period in 2024.

The PSCA report marked 36pc reduction in murder cases, 80pc in kidnap for ransom incidents, 23pc drop in robberies, 65pc in theft, a 45pc decrease in motorcycle theft, 47pc in motorcycle snatching, 29pc in car snatching and 46pc decrease in other vehicle theft incidents.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2024