Crimes up but arrests down in 2010

The number of violent crimes went up here last year, with arrests going down, compared to previous years, according to police officials Monday.

The data from the National Police Agency showed the number of violent crimes, including assault and robbery, increased by 10 percent to 579,751 last year from the five-year average from 2005 to 2009.

Rape went up 28 percent, theft by 25 percent and murder by nine percent.

However, arrests in 2010 went below the five-year average by 4 percent.

Of the violent crimes in 2010, only 70 percent of the cases resulted in arrests.

According to police officials, the disparity between the increase in crimes, and decrease in arrests is because of new security policies to reduce the number of “unreasonable” investigations and the reallocation of manpower during the G20 summit, among other factors.

Data showed that violent crimes occurred most on Saturdays at 15 percent, with Friday and Sunday close behind at 14 percent each.

Crimes also occurred most frequently on streets at 33 percent, with private residences at 10 percent.

When asked for the motive behind their crimes, most offenders answered that it was “accidental” at 46 percent, with “greed” following far behind at 11 percent.

By Robert Lee (rjmlee@heraldcorp.com)