The city saw a drop in overall reported crime by 13% as compared to the last year, owing to active policing and judicious use of technology.
At the annual round-up, Hyderabad City Police Commissioner V.V. Srinivas Rao on Friday said the Panchantantra of invoking the PD Act, continuous tracking of criminals, intensive patrolling, cordon-and-search operations and the availability of CCTV footage has facilitated detection and reduction in crime. The availability of CCTVs across the city has led to 3,256 footages being used which has helped in 91% detection of cases.
Touching upon the effectiveness of cordon-and-search operations, Mr. Rao pointed out that 38 operations led to registering of 26 cases and the arrest of 73 persons.
Over the past four years, there have been as many as 617 detentions under the PD Act. While the number was 27 in 2014, it rose to 237 in 2015, 300 in 2016, but dropped to 53 this year.
But at a time when the police seemed optimistic in the drop in overall crime rate, the number of cases of rape this year, a part of overall crime, outnumbered those reported in 2015. The increase is around 30%. However, this is lesser than the number of cases recorded last year.
Crime against women
Much like the drop in the overall crime rate, there has been a reduction in crime against women by 10%. The data shows that there have been no dowry murders till December 15 this year and the drop in harassment cases is a little over 11%.
Cyber crime remains an area of concern with the an increase of over 16.5% since the last year. This includes an increase in cases registered in connection with job and frauds involving Nigerians.
Speaking to The Hindu on the sidelines of the annual round-up, Mr. Rao said, “In the emerging areas of cyber crime, my hunch is that there is will a tremendous increase in crime in Hyderabad.”
With each successive year, the city police have increased their haul of seized narcotics. A glance at the statistics suggests that marijuana is the principal intoxicant with an increase in its seizure of about 70% from 2015.
