Crime rate in Hyd increases by 0.2% in 2022; cyber crimes up by 8.8%

Hyderabad: The overall crime rate in Hyderabad has increased slightly by 0.2 percent in 2022 as compared to that of 2021.

During the annual press conference, Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad CV Anand said that the Hyderabad police were successful in maintaining 2022 as a peaceful year.

The overall number of crimes including cases registered under the Indian Penal Code, Special and Local Laws, and others during the year 2022 was 22,060 as against 21,998 cases registered in 2021.

Bodily crimes

CV Anand said that the number of bodily crimes have increased by 2.2 percent. Bodily crimes include murder, homicide, attempt to murder, grievous hurts, simple hurts, kidnapping, and rioting. In 2021, the total number of bodily crimes were 2,133 and in 2022, it went up to 2,181. Out of the total 2,181 bodily crimes, 368 are grave bodily crimes and 1,813 are non-grave bodily crimes.

Property crimes

The overall number of property crimes in the city saw an increase of whopping 28 percent. Property crimes include murder for gain, dacoity, robbery, house breaking, chain snatching, pseudo police, diverting attention, automobile theft, house theft, servant theft, and cheating. "In 2021, the total number of property crimes were 2,417, but in 2022, it increased to 3,094" said CP CV Anand. Out of the total 3,094 cases, 179 are grave property offences and 2,915 are non-grave property offences.

Crime against women, children

According to Hyderabad police's annual report, crime against women and children have reduced in 2022 as compared to that of 2021. Crime against women reduced by over 4 percent whereas crime against children reduced by 12 percent. The number of cases of crime against women recorded in 2022 is 2,524 as against 2,652 cases in the year 2021. Similarly, 350 cases of crime against children were reported in 2022 as against 399 cases in 2021.

Cyber crime

Another type of crime that was largely witnessed in 2022 is cybercrime. "From traditional crimes like robbery and dacoity, people have now moved to cybercrimes involving high-end technologies including phishing, OTP frauds, matrimony frauds, cryptocurrency related crimes, cheating through loan apps, dark web crimes, etc. These crimes are very hard to investigate. The Hyderabad police is improving its cybercrime investigation tools and manpower," said CP CV Anand. Compared to 2021, in 2022, there has been an 8.8 percent increase in cyber crimes in Hyderabad. A total of 2,249 cyber crime cases were registered in 2022 as against 2,066 cases in 2021.

CP CV Anand mentioned how communal posts were rampant in social media these days. Citing the case of MLA Raja Singh, he said that the Hyderabad police's SMASH teams (exclusively for social media monitoring) have been able to track down such communal posts and maintain peace in the society.

Besides SMASH, CP CV Anand also spoke about initiatives Hyderabad-Narcotics Enforcement Wing (H-NEW) and Operation Rope (Road Obstructive Parking and Encroachment) that were introduced by the Hyderabad police in 2022.