Colombia’s capital Bogota saw public security plummet in 2022 mainly due to a sharp increase in armed robberies, municipal statistics indicate.
According to Bogota’s Security Secretary, armed robberies went up more than 26% in 2022 compared to the year before.
In total, police received 137,361 reports of armed robberies last year, the highest number since 2006.
Street robberies were particularly an issue in Bogota’s city center of Colombia’s capital, where some localities reported a robbery rate of almost 8,000 per 100,000 inhabitants.
The same area also reported the highest homicide rate, according to the municipal database.
Mayor announced special police task forces
In order to combat the deteriorating security situation, Bogota Mayor Claudia Lopez last week announced the creation of seven special police units “to deliver a safer Bogota at the end of the year.”
One of the police units will seek to improve security in and around the city’s Transmilenio mass transit system, which apparently has become a target of criminals.
Another unit will seek to improve security in the city center while a third will focus on providing more security at night, particularly over the weekend.
Crime and security in Bogota
Violence at home
Lopez also announced the creation of a police unit that will focus entirely on domestic and gender violence, which also soared.
According to the municipal database, Bogota authorities received more than 45 thousand reports of domestic violence in 2022, a 24.5% increase compared to the year before.
Reports of sexual violence went up 20.7% from 6,206 in 2021 to 7,489 last year.
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Lopez awarded for failing security policy
Ironically, Lopez was awarded a “Good Practices in Security and information” prize from the a Chilean organization that seeks to “acknowledge and support initiatives for the prevention of crime and violence” in Latin America, Bogota public television station Canal Capital reported on Friday.
Lopez reportedly was awarded the prize for the implementation of the “Unified Crime Inventory,” which allowed authorities to dismantle 586 gangs through the arrest of 2,369 people between August 2021 and December last year, according to the local propaganda network.
The Security Secretary’s data analysis tool suggested that the mass incarceration of citizens may have a negative effect on public security, however.