'NCRB data on B'luru crimes misleading'

At least two former state police chiefs have found fault with the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)  figures  that  put Bengaluru second only to Delhi among 19 metros in crimes. The numbers are "misleading" and "possibly inaccurate", they assert.  

S T Ramesh, a former DG&IGP,  sees the NCRB data as proof that more crimes are being registered as a result of increased awareness and better policing.  

He argued that the  rise in crimes  shows police sensitivity.

Many victims do not go to the police  because of apathy and other reasons. At the same time, it's not easy to get a case registered. If the statistics are rising, that means the police are more open than before to register cases, he said.  

According to him, the NCRB figures do not reflect the actual  crime situation of  a city. These include preventable and non-preventable crimes that are actually mere numbers.  Looking at the data without  these nuances will mislead one's understanding of crimes and their  impact on the society, he added.

Shankar Bidari, another former DG&IGP, said a better indicator would be to see categorised crimes per lakh  population of each city.  "It's not fair to compare Bengaluru with Mumbai as there are several factors and dynamics that are different between the two cities apart from the population," he said.

A lot of people keep migrating to Bengaluru, not only  from neighbouring states  but also from other parts of India. Many of them are labourers.  "Crimes should be recorded  in terms of per lakh population.  This will give a fair idea of how many policemen are there per lakh population," he added.