*Translated article (see my comment below for Dutch version)*
**The police have never recorded so few new criminal offenses. In the first half of last year, the police counted a lot fewer thefts.**
The police forces recorded 420,359 new crimes in Belgium in the first six months of last year. That was never so little. This is nearly 80,000 fewer crimes than in the same period in 2020. Then the counter stood at 499,747.
The drop in crime figures is even more pronounced if the mass of corona violations is not counted. In 2019, police forces counted 843 violations of public health rules, in line with previous years. In 2020, that exploded to more than 191,000 new facts. Also in the first half of last year, there were more than 62,000 new violations against health rules. Excluding those offenses, 358,000 other offenses remain, an all-time low.
Crime rates are declining in Brussels, Wallonia and Flanders. In Flanders, there were 213,547 new crimes in the first half of last year. That number was never so low, while that figure includes corona offenses. The figures have dropped in all Belgian provinces.
Dark number
Crime statistics are a motley collection of minor and major offenses against the criminal law, from bicycle theft to murder. The figures include all crimes on which both local and federal police forces have drawn up a first ‘initial’ official report. They include both crimes that have been committed and attempted crimes. The facts that are not known to the police – the ‘dark number’ – are obviously not included. However, the statistics do allow us to keep our finger on the pulse of the evolution of crime in our country.
If we look at the number of thefts (and extortions) in the first half of last year, then there were ‘only’ 93,733 new offenses. In the same period in 2020, there were still more than 108,000. Compared to the first six months of 2015, this is almost a halving. There were also never so few damages to property, such as vandalism and arson. And there were fewer facts of beatings and injuries.
In the fight against drug possession and trafficking, the figures dropped slightly in the first half of last year to 29,115 new offenses. For offenses related to “fraud,” especially scams such as Internet fraud, there is a status quo. In Brussels and Wallonia the figures even rose slightly.
The press service of the federal police was not yet able to provide an analysis of the drop in crime statistics on Monday. But it seems obvious that the corona restrictions are having an impact on crime figures, which were also dropping before the corona crisis.
I mean, I might aswell come out here, these numbers are flawed by the simple fact that if police didn’t respond/record it, it didn’t happen? Recently my brother attempted to get police out to his place to record vandalism to his property, he got ignored, nobody came. And he had to work with insurance to get things covered.
Police are so stretched with covid nowadays, they struggle to respond to crime the way they used to, or maybe i’m being naive and they never did.
All these statistics rely on someone reporting it, and then someone coming out to see and write it down.
time to focus on gare du nord and midi then
Or this could also mean that the cops decided to do fuck all, now even skipping reporting any interventions
You’re welcome
I’ll take ‘what is Corona’ for 200.
The tsunami of Dutch shoppers is having a positive impact for everyone. Maybe a ‘greater Netherlands’ idea is not such a bad idea after all.
I saw in a recent documentary this is mainly as the next generation have focussed on the cocaine trade.
Far less risk and as we know crazy high reward.
They’re working from home, like responsible citizens.
So, time to decrease the number of policemen then? Sounds good!
If less crime then less police (pay)?
Don’t worry, come elections the cops are going to drive around with sirens constantly to give the impression that there is a lot of crime.
meanwhile thousands of covid deniers and anti vax/maskers just walk around everywhere going unpunished..
The year my house got robbed is the year with the least crime recorded… Figures…
Why they stop recording it? 🤨
Does that mean underreporting in other domains besides petty crime? I’m thinking crimes in the digital realm.
Problem is that most crime these days are internet crime. Like I don’t see any way that the police could respond to a an 45 year old that fell for an itsme scam sms … .
When I receive such SMS I quickly try to kill their servers by sending emails to security notices to the hosting provider / DNS provider and other things. Usually its gets taken down in a day or 2-4 then. Basically I bypass the police by handling these things mostly by myself.
I do have to say that microsoft azure folks are very fast in these things. I once noticed such server to them and they even responded with a message that they escalated this to a very high priority and the server was down in less than 40 min.
Next time I will try to send it to the police.
Well, 2022 just started, so….
Let’s see:
Compared to 2000:
Breaking and entering went down, yeey!
What’s up?
Murder, rape, physical assault. But at least your house won’t get robbed 🙂
Recorded is the key word.
But people still think the world is more dangerous every year
23 comments
*Translated article (see my comment below for Dutch version)*
**The police have never recorded so few new criminal offenses. In the first half of last year, the police counted a lot fewer thefts.**
The police forces recorded 420,359 new crimes in Belgium in the first six months of last year. That was never so little. This is nearly 80,000 fewer crimes than in the same period in 2020. Then the counter stood at 499,747.
The drop in crime figures is even more pronounced if the mass of corona violations is not counted. In 2019, police forces counted 843 violations of public health rules, in line with previous years. In 2020, that exploded to more than 191,000 new facts. Also in the first half of last year, there were more than 62,000 new violations against health rules. Excluding those offenses, 358,000 other offenses remain, an all-time low.
Crime rates are declining in Brussels, Wallonia and Flanders. In Flanders, there were 213,547 new crimes in the first half of last year. That number was never so low, while that figure includes corona offenses. The figures have dropped in all Belgian provinces.
Dark number
Crime statistics are a motley collection of minor and major offenses against the criminal law, from bicycle theft to murder. The figures include all crimes on which both local and federal police forces have drawn up a first ‘initial’ official report. They include both crimes that have been committed and attempted crimes. The facts that are not known to the police – the ‘dark number’ – are obviously not included. However, the statistics do allow us to keep our finger on the pulse of the evolution of crime in our country.
If we look at the number of thefts (and extortions) in the first half of last year, then there were ‘only’ 93,733 new offenses. In the same period in 2020, there were still more than 108,000. Compared to the first six months of 2015, this is almost a halving. There were also never so few damages to property, such as vandalism and arson. And there were fewer facts of beatings and injuries.
In the fight against drug possession and trafficking, the figures dropped slightly in the first half of last year to 29,115 new offenses. For offenses related to “fraud,” especially scams such as Internet fraud, there is a status quo. In Brussels and Wallonia the figures even rose slightly.
The press service of the federal police was not yet able to provide an analysis of the drop in crime statistics on Monday. But it seems obvious that the corona restrictions are having an impact on crime figures, which were also dropping before the corona crisis.
Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
“maar,… maar…, illegalen en andere immigranten…”
I mean, I might aswell come out here, these numbers are flawed by the simple fact that if police didn’t respond/record it, it didn’t happen? Recently my brother attempted to get police out to his place to record vandalism to his property, he got ignored, nobody came. And he had to work with insurance to get things covered.
Police are so stretched with covid nowadays, they struggle to respond to crime the way they used to, or maybe i’m being naive and they never did.
All these statistics rely on someone reporting it, and then someone coming out to see and write it down.
time to focus on gare du nord and midi then
Or this could also mean that the cops decided to do fuck all, now even skipping reporting any interventions
You’re welcome
I’ll take ‘what is Corona’ for 200.
The tsunami of Dutch shoppers is having a positive impact for everyone. Maybe a ‘greater Netherlands’ idea is not such a bad idea after all.
I saw in a recent documentary this is mainly as the next generation have focussed on the cocaine trade.
Far less risk and as we know crazy high reward.
They’re working from home, like responsible citizens.
So, time to decrease the number of policemen then? Sounds good!
If less crime then less police (pay)?
Don’t worry, come elections the cops are going to drive around with sirens constantly to give the impression that there is a lot of crime.
meanwhile thousands of covid deniers and anti vax/maskers just walk around everywhere going unpunished..
The year my house got robbed is the year with the least crime recorded… Figures…
Why they stop recording it? 🤨
Does that mean underreporting in other domains besides petty crime? I’m thinking crimes in the digital realm.
Problem is that most crime these days are internet crime. Like I don’t see any way that the police could respond to a an 45 year old that fell for an itsme scam sms … .
When I receive such SMS I quickly try to kill their servers by sending emails to security notices to the hosting provider / DNS provider and other things. Usually its gets taken down in a day or 2-4 then. Basically I bypass the police by handling these things mostly by myself.
I do have to say that microsoft azure folks are very fast in these things. I once noticed such server to them and they even responded with a message that they escalated this to a very high priority and the server was down in less than 40 min.
Next time I will try to send it to the police.
Well, 2022 just started, so….
Let’s see:
Compared to 2000:
Breaking and entering went down, yeey!
What’s up?
Murder, rape, physical assault. But at least your house won’t get robbed 🙂
Recorded is the key word.
But people still think the world is more dangerous every year
But … but … all the illegal immigrants …. /s