Police patrol in Bogotá, on July 27, 2023. NATHALIA ANGARITA
As you read this article, somewhere in Colombia someone is the victim of a robbery. In the first half of 2023, 1,081 robberies were recorded per day, 44 robberies per hour and one robbery every minute and a half. This was revealed by the fourth version of the Crime Clock, a project of the Excellence in Justice Corporation, released this week. The report describes the frequency and severity of the highest impact crimes in the country. In total, there were 189,358 cases of personal theft in the first six months of 2023, an increase of 23% compared to the same period last year.
The report, which uses data from the National Police’s Statistics, Crime, Offenses and Operational Information System (SIDECO) to reflect reported events, also shows that one person is murdered every 40 minutes. “In terms of common homicides, there were an average of about 36 incidents per day in the first half of 2023.” From January to June 2023, there were 6,407 homicides, a decrease of 3.3% compared to the first six months of the previous year .
A robbery and a murder occurred simultaneously in Bogotá on Monday morning. In the La Serena district of the city of Engativá, in the west of the city, a man was shot after stealing a bicycle a few minutes earlier. “The person affected by the theft states that another citizen noticed the situation when the men stole his bicycle, pulled out a gun and started shooting,” the authorities said in the report. The thief died and the man who killed him disappeared. In a press release, the police urged citizens not to pursue justice alone.
The tragic double incident, which occurred in the middle of a public street, occurred on a day and at an unusual time for thefts. According to the Excellence in Justice report, the statistics list three times of the day when the most robberies occurred: “Between 10 a.m. and 10:59 a.m. (24% more cases), between 11 a.m. and 11:59 a.m. (22 % more cases) and between 7 p.m. and 7:59 p.m. (26% more cases).” Fridays and Saturdays were the days when these events were recorded most often, with 44% more cases compared to any other day of the week.
Less than a month ago, something similar to Engativá happened, also in Bogotá. On September 1, several citizens chased down and beat to death a person who had stolen a bicycle a few minutes earlier. “The suspected thief was caught by several residents of the sector, who inflicted several blows and a wound in the chest with a knife,” authorities reported at the time. Witnesses to the incident told El Espectador that they stripped the man of his clothes and dragged him down Avenida Ciudad de Cali, where they left him lying there.
According to police, a bike was stolen every 42 minutes in the first six months of 2023. This equates to an average of 34 cases per day and a total of 6,159 bicycle thefts during this period. The report explains that the majority took place in Bogotá. Up to 45% more cases were reported on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays than any other day. According to the system, between 5 a.m. and 5:59 a.m. (79% more cases), between 11 a.m. and 11:59 a.m. (42% more cases) and between 7 and 7:59 p.m. (37% more cases). ).
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In addition to tracking thefts and homicides, the report finds that the other crime that increased the most in Colombia in the first half of 2023 was extortion. In total, the authorities are aware of 5,269 incidents of this modality from January to June, an increase of 38% compared to the same period in 2022. Figures from the National Police show that “men were the main victims of extortion, with 66% of all cases and that Telephone calls were the main means of crime (42.6%), followed by direct blackmail (23.2%), social networks (14.6%) and the blackmail letter (6.7%).”
In contrast, the number of sexual offenses fell by 41% in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2022. In total, 10,205 of these incidents occurred. 57 incidents daily or 1 every 25 minutes. The report shows that 82.4% of sex crime victims were women and that three in 10 victims were under 13 years old. “The fourth version of the crime clock reveals an alarming fact: the crucial time when most of the 14 sex crimes were committed was between 12:00 a.m. and 12:59 a.m., with 339% more cases compared to the hourly average.”
Additionally, the report found that 71% of domestic violence victims were women. As with sexual crimes, 52,060 incidents were reported in the first half of 2023, representing 289 daily events or an average of 1 case every 5 minutes. This represents a decrease of 27% in the total compared to the previous year. “In the commission of this crime, the use of blunt weapons was recorded in 19% of cases, and of the seven days of the week, this crime occurred most often on Sundays, on which up to 59% more cases were recorded than on any other recent day.”
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