Warning as city top cop reveals rise in petty crime

By JACKLYN SIRIAS
PETTY offences like pick-pocketing and bag-snatching have topped the weekly reported crime list in the National Capital District.
NCD Metropolitan Superintendent Perou N’dranou told The National that 135 summary offences were reported and 98 suspects arrested.
“This number generally includes all the summary offences like pick-pocketing, bag-snatching and others,” he said.
He urged every individual moving around the city, whether on foot or in vehicles, to be careful and to pay due care to the environment they were in to protect themselves against thugs and opportunists.
N’dranou said apart from the summary offences, the weekly statistics of criminal offences like rape, armed robbery and car thefts were also listed for the same week from June 25 to July 1.
“In the first schedule, we have 23 offences reported with 10 suspects arrested,” he said.
He said the second schedule had 35 offences reported and only 11 arrests made.
“One of those major crime offences involved a rape case at Morata last Sunday in which a female was raped by a group of men,” he said.
N’dranou said quick response by a police unit rescued the female and arrested two suspects.
He said in regards to traffic cases, there were 22 reported and all of them were dealt with by the investigation officers responsible.
Meanwhile, both N’dranou and Central police commander Sibron Papoto raised similar concerns about drug smuggling from Central into Port Moresby.
They urged drivers of government vehicles especially not to help passengers on the highway because the smugglers were now aware that police would check PMVs.
They were getting on government-plated vehicles to escape from police.
“We do have road checks but we are not always on the road due to manpower issues and that’s when smugglers easily enter Port Moresby,” Papoto said.