KUALA LUMPUR : While the Covid-19 pandemic has brought hardship and economic turmoil, the bright side is that snatch theft cases have plunged by almost half this year compared to 2019.
Federal police CID director Commissioner Datuk Huzir Mohamed (pix), who today revealed crime statistics between January and Nov 15 this year, said 1,160 snatch theft cases were reported nationwide compared to 2,216 cases for the same period last year.
“It is a decline of 47.65%. We arrested 893 suspects over snatch theft cases last year while 527 were held this year in the same period. The statistics show recent claims that crimes are on the rise due to unemployment as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic is untrue.” he said yesterday.
Huzir said the overall crime index also showed a steep decline of 23%.
He said this year 56,117 cases were reported nationwide compared to 72,836 cases last year.
A video of a compilation of recorded street crimes warning the public to not be complacent and fall victim has been making its rounds in the social media since last week, raising concerns among netizens.
“We acknowledge there are concerns by the public on the possibility of crimes rising due to unemployment, more so when such videos are posted in the social media. With statistics showing a decline in crime rates, police will continue to keep it down with more comprehensive action. We also urge the public to not create and share content on crime trends or statistics that are unsubstantiated or unverified by the authorities. Such inaccurate information can cause worry among the public and lead to negative perceptions on enforcement agencies especially the police,“ Huzir said.
