Figures show fall in recorded crime in Blantyre
Recorded crime in the commercial capital Blantyre has fallen in the first quarter of 2017 as compared to the same period last year.according to figures published by Police.
Blantyre Police Public Relations Officer, Elizabeth Divala has said they have recorded a 33.39 percent decrease in criminal cases.
Divala attributed the trend to the efforts which all the departments in the police put in the policing section.
“During the first quarter of the year, the work has been fine in such a way that the number of cases registered in our policing area has been decreased compared to the same period in 2016.
“We encountered 676 cases in January, 2016 while January 2017 we had 462 cases recorded making a decrease of 31.5 percent. In February, 2016 we had registered 468 while in February, 2017 there were 317 cases making a decrease of 32.26 percent. In March, 451 cases were registered in 2016 while in 2017 we registered 282 cases in the same month representing a 37.47 percent decrease,” she explained.
Divala said this translates to 1061 cases in 2017 compared to 1593 cases registered in 2016 which therefore translates to a decrease of 33.39 percent of the reported cases.
“We have been working tirelessly in all branches starting from Road Traffic, Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and general duties officers,” she pointed out.
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You gotta be careful there. Reverse in crime reporting statistics doesn’t mean reduction in crime. Most of the times it came from under reporting due to huddles victims face in reporting. Victims of crimes are made to suffer physically and emotionally when reporting crime hence, to avoid the double pain, some incidence are not reported.
With this half information, I don’t know whether to say ‘yes you did a good job’ or ask the difficult question, ‘how many people shied away from reporting a crime? Has there been any increase in mob justice?’