https://www.dawn.

com/news/1712707/prevention-of-crimes-needs-a-better-plan

SINCE the beginning of this year, we have been hearing news of spike in street crimes across Karachi.
These crimes include mobile phone and vehicle snatching, house robbery, drug trade, and killing over
resistance during a robbery or snatching bid.

To prevent such crimes, the old style of policing is not enough. In the traditional policing role, the force
adheres to a zero-tolerance policy towards crime through extreme measures and on the basis of
intelligence gathered through informers, who are mostly petty or ‘retired’ criminals, to reduce the crime
rate.

Usually, such an approach entails compromise on human rights, and certain crimes for the sake of
getting information on the more serious crimes. Therefore, the police force must now opt for modern
methods to reduce crimes and bring them down to a tolerable level.

First, police in Karachi should utilise information technology (IT) to curb crimes in the city. Luckily, the
Sindh government has recently started the ‘safe city project’, which is the need of the hour in terms of
increased surveillance.

The government must make sure that the installed CCTV cameras are of good quality rather than going
for the inexpensive ones to save money. The quality should be good enough to ensure the visibility of
the faces of the culprits and the number plates of their vehicles. This will help not only in catching the
criminals, but also in investigation and prosecution.

Besides, there should be increased community policing in Karachi. This is one aspect of crime prevention
that has been generally ignored in society barring a few exceptions. The local police authorities should
delegate some responsibility to the local communities to eliminate crime in their respective vicinities.
This will give a sense of responsibility to the citizens as well.

In this regard, there is a recent success story in Karachi’s Gharibabad area where the locals, with very
little help from police, completely eradicated the menace of drugs in the area by pushing out peddlers
and addicts from their neighbourhood. However, to avoid incidents of mob justice and lynching, the
police must create a standard operating procedure (SOP) for such practices.

Lastly, the police department should start using historical data to understand current and future trends
in the crime world. With the help of crime statistics, analysts calculate the probability of future crimes
and their hotspots, and provide the police with research-based strategies and measures to counter
crime, and reduce the crime rate in a particular area. For example, areas with a higher risk of street
crime get more attention in terms of police patrolling, surveillance and allocation of financial and human
resources.

These methods will bring a positive change in reducing the crime rate in Karachi. However, for a long-
term and permanent solution, the federal and provincial governments should step up to bring socio-
economic reforms to reduce poverty, illiteracy, inequality, unemployment, and, most importantly,
inflation, as these are the major reasons behind most of the criminal activity in the country, specifically
in Karachi.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1730881/street-crimes-solution