Believe this!

‘Bangalore is safest city’
The Times of India

Bangalore: Contrary to popular perception, crime is not on the rise in the city but has dropped significantly, and dacoity has almost vanished.

This was police commissioner S. Mariswamy speaking on Thursday, and to illustrate the same, he used some statistics —In 1994, the city registered 14 murders; 1997 saw 243 murders (highest so far) and 13 in 2004.

“Bangalore has changed radically from 1994 to now, specially the population. Migration to and from the city is huge, and naturally one expects crime to increase. Astonishingly, this is not the case; crime has not risen. Bangalore is the safest city.’’
Expanding further on the ‘perceived’ high crime graph, he said robberies were registered as burglaries and there were cases of ‘crime burking’ — policemen not registering a case as it is. Purse and mobile phone snatching are described as robbery today, which was not the case earlier, he added.

Recalling the recent encounter deaths (of Abdul Razak and Nasru) he said, “People tend to think all encounter deaths are fake. In the last two cases, there is demonstrable evidence to say they are not.’’

Mariswamy was speaking on the occasion of World Communications Day, commemorated between May 17 and 25, worldwide.

Organised by Public Relations Council of India, the occasion saw Mariswamy acknowledge that the police force were the weakest in communication and that they are generally not thought of as good communicators.