Delhi, Mumbai Record Steep Drop In Street Crimes Amid Pandemic Lockdown

By Debdutta Ghosh

While novel coronavirus pandemic induced lockdown and restrictions on travel has left many frustrated as they have been forced to stay indoors, there has also been an unintended additional benefit for general people on the streets of India. 

The pandemic has seen a sharp drop in street crimes in large cities of the country. 

According to data available from separate police administrations at the end of June, there has been a steep drop in street crimes in the national capital of Delhi and the economic capital of Mumbai. 

At the end of June, Delhi Police reported a 56% drop in street crime in the capital city of India during the entire period the Covid-19 lockdown. Till May this year, there has been a significant drop in cases of robbery, snatching, hurt and motor vehicle theft in the city compared to the same period last year. 

Delhi police noted that there were more than 964 cases of robbery reported last year in May while that number dropped to only 596 cases this year in the same month. Similar large drop in incidents of snatching were also noted, with 2,141 cases being reported this year compared to 2,811 cases last year.

The police claimed that this reduction has been because of patrolling teams and personnel deployed at pickets, hospitals and Covid centres.

“Police are also catching people violating lockdown norms or social distancing. Challans are issued to those who are not seen wearing masks or spitting on the streets. Till date, we have issued over 16,708 challans to such violators,” said Anil Mittal, Additional PRO of Delhi Police.

There has also been a 50% drop in reported cases of crime against women in the national capital with reported incidents of rape declining to 520 this year compared to 891 in the month of May last year.

The restriction on movement of people during the lockdown implemented to prevent the spread of the virus has also consequently resulted in a drop in the number of road accidents. During this period, only 348 fatal accidents were registered in Delhi this year which was almost half of the what had been reported in the same period a year ago. 

But the pandemic did not manage to bring down incidents of heinous crimes such as murder, dacoity, kidnapping and attempt to murder in Delhi. The police said that the number of such incidents remained almost same for this year during the lockdown period as they it was in the same period a year ago. In fact, with the partial relaxation of the strict lockdown norms and with  more and more markets and public places are opening up, there a slow rise in the number of heinous crimes being noted. 

Similar trends in drop of street and related crimes were also reported from the financial capital of India, Mumbai. 

Mumbai police noted a drastic downward trend in crimes in general in the city during the period of lockdown and restricted movement. There has been a dramatic decrease in the number of reported crimes in the month of April and May compared to the same two months of the previous year. What has surprised the cops is the reporting of just two incidents of chain snatching on Mumbai streets in two months of April and May. 

The Mumbai police have also reported a very significant drop in reported cases of crime against women during the period.

Apart from almost no incidents of chain snatching, police said that there had also been a significant drop in incidents of theft, house breaks, rape and molestation. 

During the two months of the severest lockdown in the city – in March and April, a total number of 11,895 criminal cases had been registered by the Mumbai police. However out of these 9,415 cases were related to violation of the lockdown norms.

According to the police, the primary reason for the drop in street crimes during the lockdown was the fact that people were forced to stay inside their homes which also included criminals. This prevented such criminals from coming out and engaging in criminal activities of the streets. Also there was much less people on the streets than usual which also reduced chances of street crimes, in addition to the known criminals staying back at home. 

Further, there was also much greater presence of cops on the road to oversee strict implementation and adherence to the lockdown norms. “During the lockdown period, the Mumbai police had set up 199 checkpoints all over the city which directly affected the crime rate going down,” said DCP and Spokesperson of Mumbai Police, Pranay Ashok.

According to data from the Mumbai police, 5,703 cases were registered in the city in the month of April this year of which 5,278 cases were related to incidents of booking for violation of lockdown norms. Similarly in the month of May, Mumbai police recorded 2,532 criminal cases which comprised of 1,877 cases of lockdown violations. On a year-on-year basis for these two months, these crime rates were negligible, police said.  

However, with the slow relaxation of the lockdown norms and the pandemic causing loss of jobs, the police anticipate the possibility of an increase in the crime rate in the city. 

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