How the cases of theft have increased over recent times in public transports of Lahore?

It is a well-acknowledged fact that Pakistan is the fifth most densely populated country in the
world. Since it is regarded as it is regarded as a Third World country, thus, it means that the
overpopulation has paved the path for unemployment and ultimately, poverty and hunger.
Henceforth, such problems force the poverty-stricken masses to indulge themselves in various
forms of crime – especially the one catering to money – in order to fulfill their basic needs. Thus,
public transports become a tangible source for them to exercise their criminal acts.

Pearlstein and Wacks (1982) have found out in their research that most of the theft related crimes
are committed when the public transports are densely packed and during the peak rush hours –
which implies the evening time. Nonetheless, if a person can fall prey to theft at the hands of a
cab driver too, if he/she is travelling alone. The most probable reasons behind theft in public
transport are: “the lack of standardized reporting and recording of crime and disorder on public
transport, difficulties in analyzing the available data, and the different policing and security
arrangements in place across the network, and the likely levels of underreporting on the system”
(Newton 2004). The extent of these reasons increases to an alarming level in context of a major
city (Lahore) in a Third World country (Pakistan). According to a research, only 2 out of 10
cases of theft in a public transport in Lahore are reported. Thereby, such an alarming level of
underreporting of crime adds more to the disorder on the public transports, as it is regarded as
less important that other issues and thus, does not make it to the priority list of the provincial
government of Punjab. Henceforth, this acts as a barrier between the rightful estimation as well
as the recording of theft crimes and eventually lead towards a scarcity of measures taken in this
regard. Other than that, the minority of reported crimes are not properly catered to and hence, go
in vain due to corrupt officials or lack of systemized policies and plans to inculcate the officers
of respective institution, in proper investigation process.

Apart from that, the deregulation of the system of the bus networks is also responsible for an
increase in crimes related to theft, since numerous local buses work under different networks
which can be private or public – run under the provincial government i.e. speedo buses.
According to our survey conducted among the people from the ages ranging from 18 to 25 years,
8.9 percent have faced theft or robbery while travelling via a public transport. As discussed
above, that it is more likely an underestimated figure since the rate of underreporting of such,
apparently minor, crimes is high. Besides, pickpocketing is quite an underrated crime, as if it
remain underreported, it has the potential to encourage the pickpockets to indulge in more
serious crimes. Most of the time, pickpockets target people – in a bus or a train – during the rush
hours, especially when they gather at the stops waiting for the transport or when they are about to
leave a crowded transport. According to our survey, about 7.6 percent people have faced a
pickpocketing incident very often and about 17.7 percent people have sometimes fell prey to
pickpocketing.

Various instances about the theft in public transport are quoted below. According to the police,
in 2017 a 26 year old man who was travelling by the Orange Train line was robbed at about
11:30 pm. Three men allegedly threatened him to give off his wallet and phone and then beat
him severely resulting in a serious nose injury. Furthermore, in accordance with the 24 News HD
survey in 2020, the citizens of Lahore – so far – have lost 12 billion rupees to theft in public
transports such as, the Orange Train, Metro Bus and Speedo. It is also estimated that this huge
figure was half in 2019 (6 billions). Thus, it is stated that the robbers’ performance has
impeccably improved, while the police officials stand still in the face of such crimes along with
their poor and orthodox strategies. Besides, Pakistan Today has depicted in its report, a robbery
of a female victim who was travelling via Metro bus from Qainchi to Shahdara. Dawn paper
delineated in its 2013 report, that an America-returned woman was robbed off of jewelry and
cash near the Metro station. She was deprived of 400$ worth of jewelry and about 75,000 rupees
cash.

Moreover, in 2016 an Uber driver – when asked to pick up 100 kg of Qurbani meat from the
location and to deliver it to a woman’s house in DHA, Lahore – ran away with the meat and
blocked that woman’s phone number. This incident depicts the height of absurdity that engulfs
the minds of the thieves. Other than that, in 2018, a student coming home to Thokar Niaz Biag
from her university (LUMS) was robbed by an armed Uber driver. He has meticulously planned
this robbery, as he asked for her phone by saying that he has to make an emergency call and
then, refused to return it by pointing a gun on her head. In this episode of utter frenzy, she had to
jump off the car leaving her valuables. All in all, the aforementioned cases are a few of the total
cases of theft that were actually reported, nevertheless the valuables of the victims could not be
retrieved by the police, unfortunately.
We can apply the crime pattern theory to analyze these cases of theft, which is inclusive of three
components; nodes, paths and edges (Clarke and Eck, 2005). Nodes are regarded as the places
from where the travel is started and the destination (to and from). Paths or routes link two or
more nodes together and edges are regarded as the boundaries around the nodes. According to
the crime pattern theory, most of the crimes occur at those places where the criminal’s routine
activity spaces intersect with that of the potential victims. Thus, it is implied that often times
theft related crimes in the public transports are not even planned and thereby, are spontaneous.
Furthermore, the concept of crime attractors, crime generators and crime neutral areas can help
us in understand the occurrence of such crimes in a better way (Clarke and Eck, 2005). Crime
generators are the areas that are teeming with reasons for the offenders to commit an unplanned
theft crime – the opportunities of crime are thus generated. Crime attractors are the areas where
the offender is mindful about the criminal opportunities. Crime neutral areas are those where the
reasons for planned or unplanned crimes can seldom be generated. Public transports – especially
HTVs – are regarded as crime generators or crime attractors depending upon the time of day
(Smith and Cornish, 2006).

Besides, according to the statistics brought forth by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the
reported cases of robbery were 11 in 2008, however in 2019 the reported cases increased to 209,
thereby, a significant yet unfortunate improvement can be seen here. There are several reasons
behind an increase in the cases of theft in the public transports of Lahore, such as; inadequacy of
strict policies by the government; somewhat impractical regulations of transport networks,
irrespective of the sector they belong to – private or public; inadequacy of coordination between
the transport related institutions/agencies; shortage of separate transports for females only – since
a majority of offenders are men and victims are women; insufficient finances to implement
viable policies; inefficient planning and corruption in public and private sector. Henceforth, the
question arises that why all the public transportation policies fail in Pakistan? The over the top
role of private sector in public transport is a pertinent reason behind it, as there is a lack of state
owned public transport which created a vacuum to be filled by the private sector. The private
sector influences all the governmental policies neglecting the development of the operation of
public transports for its own benefit, hence the customers’ benefits are set aside. Therefore, the
issue of constantly increasing theft crimes in public transports is ignored. Moreover, there are
more number of privately owned public transport chains running in Pakistan than the
government owned, such as, Airlift buses, Daewoo, Swvl, Uber, Careem, etc. According to The
Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) America, the crime rate of robberies in Lahore has
noticeably increased by 0.51 percent over the course of a year – as in 2018 there were 3099 cases
of robbery were reported, whereas in 2019, 3115 cases were reported. Thereby, there is immense
room for improvement.

Many viable measures can be taken by the provincial government to prevent or to minimize – to
some extent – the theft crimes in the public transports of Lahore. The environment, management,
infrastructure and design of the railway and bus stations can influence the crime rates. If the
aforementioned areas are improved, then the crimes rates can be reduced (Clarke, 1996). For
instance, improvement in illuminating dark corners, which are the potential hiding places; the
appointment of proficient guardians (Newton et al, 2004) – especially for women – and the use
of efficient handlers (Van Andel, 1989) can reduce the recurrence of the crimes. Besides,
security guards must be posted on the entry and exist points of the stations so that the crime can
be prevented or reported immediately. In this way the looted valuables of the victims can be
recovered efficiently. Interviews with Ekbom with the criminals revealed that the they stand by
the sign depicting ‘beware of the pickpockets’, as after reading it people pat their pockets to
ensure that their valuable are safe (Clarke and Eck, 2005). Thus, this is a sign for the pickpockets
to get to know which pocket has the wallet. Such clever tactics are must not be ignored. Rather
than focusing on strict punishments, the government must educate its officials regarding the
psyche of the offenders so that they can identify them proactively. Furthermore, apps must be
introduced by the government that allow the victims to file a report against theft in the public
transport online in order to save time. Additionally, the quick action of the respective officials is
essential to the success of this measure.

All in all, in this paper we critically viewed the reasons behind an increase in the cases of theft
over recent times in the public transports of Lahore. We have come to a conclusion that in order
to cater the rapidly increasing crime rate, the issue of employment must be catered first; as
people resort to theft related crimes when they are in dire need of money to fulfill their basic
necessities. Thus, the policies regarding the employment of the illiterate masses in jobs requiring
physical labor, must be introduced. Additionally, it should invest more in the transport arena in
order to act upon all the aforementioned measures to minimize the extent of such crimes. For that
matter, a priority list must be made by the officials who are fully aware of the social sphere –
along with its evils – of the province. Thus, such ‘apparently minor’ crimes must be prioritized
by the government, as – if ignored – can lead towards unbearable consequences; a rise in civil
disobedience.
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