But that may do little to allay Bangaloreans’ sense of fear.
Year-end this time round is backslapping time for the City police. Citing crime statistics for the City from 2004 to 2007 (provisional till November 30 last), Police Commissioner N Achutha Rao gave thumbs up to his personnel.
Yes, the statistics, accessed by Deccan Herald, speak (see table) of marginal rise or even fall in various crimes, in contrast to the City’s burgeoning population and expanding boundaries.

But between the dead numbers is the giveaway: the City police have failed in fighting crime as revealed in detections: Say 137 murders (62 per cent) have been detected of the 220 reported during 2007 as against 156 (78 per cent) out of 199 in 2006 and 113 robberies (38 per cent) cracked out of the 296 committed during 2007 as against 194 (50 per cent) out of 384 the previous year.

The City police are at their worst when it comes to cracking chain-snatching incidents: only 35 cases (17 per cent) were cracked out of 201 reported in  2007, while in 2006 110 cases (41 per cent) were detected out of the 263 that occurred.

The year has seen several high-profile cases where the truth is still not out or the key perpetrators are still at large. The Shabnam Developers double murder case has been technically solved but the main accused, Ravi Poojary, is nowhere in sight.

The Chemmanur Jewellers’ heist, though under the cracked list, was solved largely due to police from other districts. The main accused remains untraced.

The Indiranagar and Commercial Street firing incidents and murders for gain at Seshadripuram, Vijayanagar and J P Nagar have remained major conundrums. The two-year-old IISc terror attack also remains a mystery though several suspected terrorists have been put behind bars citing “sleeper cells”.

The police chief does reel out platitudes like the the City’s growing population and spreading reach when talking of his forces’ record in tackling crime despite the limited personnel and resources at hand. However, the truth is the City police have just refused to come out of the fire-fighting mode. A pro-active approach to fighting crime appears to be nowhere on their horizon. Conviction rates continue to remain abysmally low.

Yes, Achutha Rao is the “luckiest” chief at the helm in recent times as during 2007, the City has not witnessed any major riots. There have been no terror strikes despite the talk of the Silicon Valley being high on global terror’s hit list.

But on the City roads, it is a virtual free-for-all. The traffic police continue to blunder along and flip-flop, under the ruse of guiding the City out of the mess.

At a recent presentation to the Governor's advisor, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) K C Ramamurthy said: “Either widen the roads or direct the RTO to stop registering new vehicles.”