After close to two months of COVID-19 related work, the city police have once again begun focussing on crime prevention and detection, as incidents of chain snatching and burglary have started cropping up once more across the city.
Since March 24, the city has been under lockdown, and a majority of the city police personnel were involved in checking curfew passes, vehicle checking, hospital duties, maintaining personal distancing in markets and bandobast in containment zones.
Due to movement restrictions, the crime rate in the city saw a 71 % dip. Hardly a single incident of chain snatching was reported every day and burglaries had also reduced to a great extent. “Not many people came out during the lockdown, so snatching chains was not possible. As people were inside their houses, burglars found it hard to break in. Many people accused of crime were also frightened of contracting the virus if they stepped out,” said a police officer.
However, after shops and offices were allowed to function, people’s movement also increased. “Now, burglaries and chain snatching incidents have started cropping up again. Recently there was an attempt to burgle case in MGR Nagar and a theft case in the Triplicane police station limits,” added a senior police officer.
Kapilkumar. C. Sarath, joint commissioner, North, said that a lot of manpower is now saved as only houses /apartment complexes where COVID-19 patients live have been quarantined. “Earlier the entire street used to be blocked as a containment zone. Now we are doing our regular work and COVID-19 related tasks too,” he said.
Hence the police have intensified patrolling and vehicle checks across the city. “We are monitoring houses that have been locked as the residents may be stranded elsewhere. Our crime detectives have also started solving cases. We recently recovered gold, silver utensils and laptops in 10 cases. The accused have also been arrested,” said K. Prabhakar, deputy commissioner, St.T homas Mount.
P. Pakalavan, deputy commissioner, Adyar said that previous offenders are also being monitored. “We have intensified vehicle checks during the night and we have mapped crime prone areas and are patrolling them,” he said.