Visakhapatnam: Visakhapatnam city police have announced a significant decline in property theft cases during March 2024.
Addressing media on Thursday, city police commissioner A. Ravi Shankar said only 86 property offenses have been reported during the last month involving ₹70.67 lakh worth property.
Special teams that Vizag police formed solved 52 of these cases, arrested 57 persons and recovered property worth ₹37.78 lakh.
The decrease in theft cases is consequent on a multipronged approach, like installing over 700 CCTV cameras across the city, conducting awareness programmes among people, patrolling crime-prone areas, placing restrictions on known offenders and monitoring individuals released from jail.
A breakdown of the property thefts during March indicates three robberies, a housebreaking by day, six housebreakings by night, four snatchings, one car theft, 21 ordinary thefts, 15 two-wheeler thefts, and a motor vehicle theft.
Recoveries in these cases include 450 grams of gold, 99 grams of silver, a van, 18 motorcycles, a car, containers, batteries, a computer set, mobile phones, cash, diesel and scrap materials.
Visakhapatnam police have achieved significant progress in recovering lost and stolen mobile phones. During March, they recovered 748 phones worth ₹1.12 crore. In all, city police have so far recovered 2,160 phones, restoring 1,412 of them to their rightful owners.
