LAHORE: With a 57 per cent increase in crime rate in 2021, Lahore city’s crime figures crossed 200,000 cases, whereas, in recent previous years, the average registered crime in Lahore remained around 125,000.

The police authorities attribute the big number to the policy of free registration of cases, while social scientists call it a result of massive inflation and poverty that has rendered people jobless.

Frequent and premature transfers and postings in the top ranks of the Lahore police, particularly the reshuffle of the head of the operations wing, also led to the high crime rate.

Data say 133,222 cases were registered in the 84 police stations of the provincial capital in 2020 that reached 203,452, in 2021. The data add 427 people were killed during 2020, and 432 in 2021.

The kidnap for ransom incidents, however, decreased in 2021 - nine cases in 2021 and 13 in 2020.

However, robberies with murder remained a concern for the government as 30 citizens were allegedly killed on resistance in 2021, while the number of murders reported in this regard in 2020 was 25.

The city saw 108 dacoities in the outgoing year, 13 more from 2020.

The police failed to stem the tide of robberies as 3,360 robbery cases were registered in 2020, while the number increased to 9,308 in 2021, showing a visible difference of 5,948.

Similarly, thefts also increased from 92 in 2020 to 199 in 2021. Nineteen cars were snatched in 2020 while such 20 incidents occurred in 2021.The division-wise data showed the City, Sadar and Cantt topped the crime chart.

The City Division registered 28,246 crime cases in 2020 that increased to 43,807 in 2021.

Similarly, there were 28,052 cases in Sadar Division in 2020 which increased to 40,803 in the following year.

The Cantt division was the third-highest hotspot of crimes where 23,222 cases were registered in 2020 which increased to 40,174 in 2021.

The Cantt division registered 105 murder cases, followed by 89 in Sadar and 82 in the City division.

A senior police officer said that the new hierarchy of the Lahore police had studied the leading factors behind the high crime rate and concluded that reforms in the investigation wing would be instrumental to bring the crime percentage down.

For this purpose, he said, the police department had improved financial and human resources and provided transport to the investigation wing to arrest criminals.The police official added the Crime Investigation Agency had also been reformed by increasing centres in various parts of the city.

The main domain of the CIA was to detect trace and eliminate networks of hardened criminals, he said, adding that the Lahore operations wing has shortlisted 200 police officials and transferred them to the CIA to strengthen the wing.

“We have prepared a list of 3,000 TOS and handed over to the special teams for their arrests”, the police officer said.

He said the arrests of hardened criminals and punishment in the courts would bring the crime rate down in the city of Lahore in a couple of months.

Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2022