Central crime stats show rise in contact and other serious crimes

The recently released third-quarter crime stats from the SAPS have indicated a 3.5% growth in contact crimes in Pretoria Central.

These crimes are instances in which victims are subjected to or threatened with acts of violence.

Contact crimes include murder, attempted murder, sexual offences, assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm (GBH), common assault, common robbery, robbery with aggravating circumstances and trio crimes among others.

These stats reflected the differences in crimes reported from October to December 2021 compared to October to December 2022.

While murder cases reported have seen a drop of 50%, robbery with aggravated circumstances decreased by 5.6% and sexual offences reported have seen a drop of 44.2%, other contact crimes have also increased.

Attempted murder cases reported have increased from six to 15 (150% increase), assault with intent to cause grievous bodily increased from 96 to 112 (16.7%), and common assault and robbery are both up by 8.6% and 13.4% respectively giving Pretoria Central a 3.5% increase in contact crimes.

In other serious crimes, commercial crimes reported are up 11.6%, while shoplifting is up a staggering 800% from 14 cases reported last third quarter to 126 in this quarter.

In property and other contact-related crimes, malicious property damage increased by 20% while the number of arson cases reported remained the same (one).

The amount of residential premises burglaries that were reported doubled from eight to 16.

Burglaries at non-residential premises have, however, seen a drop of 20.4%, while theft of motorcycles or vehicles decreased by 4.9%. Thefts out of vehicles increased by 27.3%, resulting in a 14.6% increase in property-related crimes and 20% in contact-related crimes.

No stock-theft cases have been reported since 2018.

Pretoria Central has seen improvements in dealing with sexual offences as reported rapes have decreased by 46.9% (from 32 to 17), sexual assault decreased by 22.2% (9 to 7), and contact sexual offences decreased from two cases reported to none.

No attempted sexual offence case was reported during this and the previous third quarter.

The good news for central motorists is that car hijackings are down 30.8%. No robbery in residential areas was reported this third quarter, an improvement from the two cases last quarter.

Robberies in non-residential areas have seen a decrease of 37.1%, and trio crimes have decreased by 38% with no cash-in-transit or bank robberies or truck hijackings reported this third quarter.

In the crimes detected as a result of the police action, kidnappings have increased by 50%, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs increased by 10% and no sexual offences detected since 2020 but overall crimes detected as a result of police action have decreased by 7.2%.

Illegal possession of firearms and ammunition, however, has decreased by 11.1% and drug-related crime detection has decreased by 10.3%.

Residents are advised to always be cautious regarding their surroundings and property and contact police immediately should they fall victim to any crimes.

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