West reports decrease in contact crime

Police minister Senzo Mchunu released the first quarter crime statistics for 2024/25 on Friday, August 30.

The statistics reveal crimes reported to South Africa’s 1 163 police stations from April to June 2024.

Pretoria West stations, apart from Atteridgeville, have seen decreases in contact crimes.

Temba, Mamelodi East, Brooklyn, Pretoria Central and Sunnyside were among the country’s top 30 police stations plagued by serious crime.

Atteridgeville

Atteridgeville Police Station saw an increase in contact crimes (crimes against a person) of 17% this quarter.

The largest increase reported was in sexual offences, rising to 34 cases compared to last quarter’s 18.

Common assault also saw a sharp increase (67.9%), with 131 cases reported compared to last quarter’s 78.

Reported murder cases increased by one count (19 to 20), while assault with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm (GBH) cases increased from 73 to 78 and common robberies increased by six cases (18 to 24).

Reported attempted murder cases decreased by five counts (17 to 12) and robberies with aggravating circumstances decreased by 15.3% (118 to 100).

Reported rape cases increased by 15 counts (16 to 31) and three sexual assault cases were reported this quarter, compared to one in the last.

No contact sexual offences were reported this quarter, compared to one case reported in the last and no attempted sexual offences have been reported in the past five quarters.

Atteridgeville has seen a sharp decrease in the number of carjacking cases reported from the 32 last quarter to 17.

Robberies at residential premises decreased by four counts (16 to 12), while robberies at non-residential premises decreased by nine cases (25 to 16).

No cash-in-transit (CIT) heists were reported this quarter, compared to the one case last quarter and no bank robberies or truck hijackings have been reported in the past three quarters.

Two cases of arson were reported this quarter, compared to one case reported in the previous. Malicious damage to property cases increased by 57.6%, from 33 cases to 52 this quarter.

Burglaries at non-residential premises decreased by 19 counts (32 to 13) and motor vehicle and motorcycle theft dropped from 25 to 22 cases, and theft out of or from a motor vehicle cases also saw decreases of three counts (40 to 37).

Two counts of stock theft were reported this quarter compared to none in the previous and burglaries at residential premises increased by 8% (50 to 54).

Shoplifting cases decreased by 27 counts (61 to 31) and commercial crime increased by 14 counts (35 to 49).

Serious crimes reported by the community increased by 6.6% (725 to 773), while all thefts not mentioned elsewhere increased by 1.9% (107 to 109).

Atteridgeville saw an increase of 27.5% in crimes detected as a result of police action this quarter.

Detected drug-related crimes increased by 27.3% (132 to 168) and detected driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs (DUI) cases increased by 12 counts (22 to 34).

Two detected sexual offences were recorded this quarter, compared to one reported in the last.

Detected illegal possession of firearms and ammunition cases decreased by two counts (16 to 14) and seven more counts of kidnapping were reported this quarter than the previous 17 (24).

Booysens

Booysens Police Station saw a decrease of 4.8% in contact crimes this quarter, the most significant being 11 fewer common robbery cases reported (39 to 28).

Robberies with aggravating circumstances decreased by 10.5% (190 to 170) and common assault decreased by 4.2% (96 to 92).

Reported murder cases increased by nine counts (4 to 13) and assault with GBH cases increased by 13.6% (59 to 67).

Reported sexual offences decreased by three counts from 21 last quarter to 18.

Rape cases saw a decrease of five counts (16 to 11), while no contact sexual offences have been reported in the previous three quarters.

Two attempted sexual offence cases were reported this quarter, compared to none in the previous quarter, while five sexual assault cases have been reported in the past two quarters.

Carjackings decreased by seven cases (40 to 33), robberies at residential premises decreased by a single count (34 to 33) and robberies at non-residential premises decreased by four counts (26 to 22).

No CIT heists were reported this quarter, as opposed to the two cases in the previous quarter and one truck hijacking case was reported, one less than last quarter.

No bank robberies have been reported in the previous five quarters.

No arson cases were reported this quarter, and malicious damage to property cases decreased by 8.5%.

Burglaries at non-residential premises decreased by 15 counts (52 to 37) and burglaries at residential premises decreased by 20 counts (55 to 35).

Theft of motor vehicle or motorcycle cases decreased by 16.1% (87 to 73) and theft out of or from motor vehicle cases decreased by 10.0% (80 to 72).
No stock theft cases have been reported in the past five quarters, giving the station’s property-related crimes a 20.8% deduction.

Commercial crimes increased by 29.9% (69 to 89), while shoplifting cases decreased by four counts (26 to 22).

Community reported serious crimes decreased by 11.5% (1 105 to 976) and all theft not mentioned elsewhere decreased by 24.6% (244 to 184).

Booysens police saw decreases in crimes detected as a result of police action, with detected drug-related crimes decreasing by 25 counts (53 to 28) and detected DUI cases decreasing by 1.5% (134 to 132).

Detected illegal possession of firearms and ammunition cases decreased by 13 counts (20 to 7) and sexual offence cases have been detected by Booysens police in the past five quarters.

Kidnapping cases decreased by four counts from 30 to 26.

Pretoria West

Pretoria West Police Station saw a decrease of 12.2% in contact crimes this quarter.

Common assault decreased by 27.4% (106 to 77) and assault with GBH decreased by 10.7% (56 to 50).

Reported attempted murder cases decreased by 14 counts (19 to 5), while reported murder cases decreased by five counts (7 to 2) and reported sexual offences decreased by three counts (21 to 18).

Robberies with aggravating circumstances decreased by 1% (203 to 201) and reported common robberies increased by six counts (21 to 27).

Three sexual assault cases were reported this quarter, compared to five in the previous, while 15 rape cases were reported this quarter as well as in the previous.

No attempted sexual offences have been reported in five quarters, while no contact sexual offences have been reported this quarter compared, to the one from the previous.

Carjackings rose by 9.4% (53 to 58), while robberies at residential premises and non-residential premises increased by five (53 to 58) and four (25 to 29) counts respectively.

No CIT heists or bank robberies have been reported in the past five quarters and no truck hijackings were reported this quarter, compared to the two reported last quarter.

Arson cases rose to two counts compared to none reported last quarter and malicious damage to property cases decreased by 6.7% (60 to 56).

Property-related crimes increased by 6.7%, with burglaries at residential premises increasing by 14.2% (106 to 121) and theft out of or from motor vehicle cases increased by 17.9% (67 to 79).

Reported theft of motor vehicle or motorcycle cases increased by 10.6% (47 to 52), while burglaries at non-residential premises decreased by 15 counts (35 to 20). No stock theft has been recorded in the past four quarters and all theft not mentioned elsewhere decreased by 4.8% (188 to 179).

Commercial crimes decreased by 1.2% (82 to 81) and shoplifting cases decreased by 19 counts (31 to 12). Serious crimes reported by the community decreased by 6.4% (1049 to 982).

Crimes detected as a result of police action decreased by 26.8%, with drug-related crimes detected decreasing by 27.8% (72 to 52). No sexual offences have been detected in the past two quarters and detected DUI cases decreased by 12 counts (35 to 23).

Illegal possession of firearms and ammunition cases increased by two counts (5 to 7) and kidnapping cases reported increased by 13 counts (16 to 29).

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