The poor success rate in preventing or solving theft and burglary cases in Gujarat has busted the tall claims of the state police in upholding a high standard of law and order.
The state police’s own data released recently paints a dark picture of their success rate in stemming crime by prompt arrests or suitable preventive measures to thwart crime incidents.
Data shows that Gujarat police have not been able to solve 50% of crimes related to theft, loot and burglary in the past few years.
The state recorded 97,950 thefts and burglaries between 2018 and 2023. Of these, only 46,636 were detected. Crime numbers have only grown steadily over this period, with thefts going down only during the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021 when people mostly stayed home due to lockdowns and curfews.
The number of thefts during these two years ranged close to 10,000 statewide — still a worrisome number.
As far as the figures in other years is concerned, the state saw 14,170 registered theft crimes in 2018, of which only 42% were detected, while 2023, till September, saw a huge spike in thefts with 16,529 being reported, and only around 8,000 of them solved.
The crime solving rate for burglaries ranged between 39% in 2018 to 55% in 2023.
The statistics by Gujarat police also shows that on an average 38 thefts and nine burglaries have been reported in the state every day between 2018 and September 30, 2023.
Defending the police force’s performance, a senior officer said Gujarat’s case solving stats are better than the national average.
“We have done much better than other states. We have been making sincere efforts to detect these cases with advanced technologies and human intelligence,” the officer said.
The National Crime Record Bureau’s (NCRB) had last released its data in 2021, according to which, the national average of detection of thefts and burglaries that year was around 30%.
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