Crime rate down by 18.8 per cent in AP

In contrast, a surge has been reported in number of cases of women’s harassment and cyber crime
'Crime Rate' is calculated by dividing the number of cases reported by the population size in lakhs. (Express illustration)
'Crime Rate' is calculated by dividing the number of cases reported by the population size in lakhs. (Express illustration)

VIJAYAWADA: With continous action and improved policing activities implemented in the year 2022, the State has seen a sharp decline in crime by 18.8 percent, said the Director General of Police (DGP) Kasireddy Rajendranath Reddy, adding the result has created a a deterrence among the public on committing crimes.

In contrast, the State has also witnessed an increase in the total number of cases of women’s harassment and cyber crime.According to statistics provided by the DGP during the review meeting at police headquarters in Mangalagiri on Wednesday, Andhra Pradesh State reported a total of 2,31,359 cases under various sections of IPC and Special Local Laws (SLL) against 2,84,753 in 2021 and 2,92,565 in 2020.

“In a first-of-its-kind, we have achieved a conviction rate of 66.6 percent with the implementation of conviction based policing in the state,” said the DGP Rajendranath Reddy.“The State has reported nine percent fewer cases of murders with 857 cases during 2022 against 945 in 2021. Similarly, there is a decrease in cases of riots in the current year by 22 percent, when compared to previous year with reporting 442 cases in 2022 against 562 in 2021,” Reddy explained.

Explaining that the State government and police department has given top priority for the women safety and creating safe environment for all vulnerable sections of the society, DGP Rajendranath Reddy said more than 1 crore people had downloaded and registered the Disha SOS mobile and received around 27,000 actionable emergency response calls from the users.

Crime against women

There is an increase in the total number of women harassment cases by 14.7 percent with reporting 11,895 cases against 10,373 cases in 2021. Defending the surge in cases, the DGP said, “More number of cases of crime against women is a positive result of outreach programs, which has led to filing of more cases on the accused to create deterrence from committing the crime.”Ironically, DGP did not mention the number of POCSO act cases, kidnap cases, suicides, cybercrime cases filed by APCID and others which are in nature of sensitive except maintaining there was a decline in numbers.

DGP appreciates Anantapur cops’

Speaking to the media, DGP Rajendranath Reddy appreciated the technological initiatives of Anantapur district SP Fakeerappa Kaginelli who launched two internal apps - High Alert and Chatbot.The High Alert mobile application is installed in all the mobile phones of cops working in the district where they receive a message along with a siren whenever an information related to kidnap, theft and other crime so that a nearby officer could address the issue and resolve it at the earliest.

“The siren ringtone in their mobile phones will ring continuously till someone reaches the spot and addresses the issue. This helps us send emergency information in less than one minute to all the officers working in the district.Similarly, Chatbot is a special app where one can get alerts on their missing/lost phone complaints. We have recovered around 4,200 phones so far,” said the Anantapur SP Fakeerappa Kaginelli.

Drop in road fatalities: DGP

From January 1 to till date as on December 28, the State reported a total of 18,739 road mishaps against 19,203 in 2021. DGP Rajendranath Reddy said special measures were taken by including district SPs in road safety committees and rectifying all the hotspots identified during the inspection.“In our observation, we have identified around 50 percent of the road mishaps occurred during 3pm to 9 pm and two -wheelers contribute around 60 percent of the accidents,” DGP said.

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