Pretoria - Criminals in Gauteng have found new ways to bypass the system, Acting Provincial Police Commissioner Patricia Rampota has said.
Rampota was presenting the province’s 2020/21 second-quarter crime statistics to the legislature yesterday.
She told the portfolio committee on community safety that they were nonetheless still able to stay on top of crime-fighting efforts.
“The lockdown has definitely had a huge impact on almost all crime categories.
"We recorded a decrease of 18 417 cases to the July to September 2019/2020 ones.
“These are mainly contact crimes, contact-related crimes, property-related crimes and other serious crimes,” she said.
The latest stats show a drop of 16% in the 17 serious crime categories.
“Although Covid-19 was a game-changer in terms of arresting suspects for this crime category due to lockdown regulations where criminals changed their modus operandi, good work was still done due to intelligence-driven interventions by the SAPS, the metro police departments, provincial traffic and other law enforcement agencies,” Rampota said.
Gauteng recorded 10% fewer murders between July and September, attempted murder dropped by 2.2%, common robbery dropped by 13%, gender-based violence dropped by 10% and other sexual offences dropped by 12.2%.
Rampota attributed this to "the limited movement of persons and traffic, as well as the prohibition on selling of alcohol".
She added: "As restrictions were eased, so did the opportunities to commit crime also increase.”Last week, Police Minister Bheki Cele announced the national second-quarter crime statistics, which cover the period from July 1 to September 30.
Cele said the decrease across different crimes was largely due to the lockdown.
Pretoria News