Our View: Increase in crime is not the state’s fault

ARE PEOPLE in Cyprus living in fear and insecurity as DISY deputy Ionas Nicolaou claimed, after seeing the latest crime figures? Are we afraid to walk the streets at night or to park the car in an underground car park in a city centre? Has Cyprus stopped being a safe place to bring up children?
The answer to all the above questions is a big no. Our physical well-being when walking the street is threatened much more by reckless drivers who ignore traffic laws than by muggers, rapists, child abusers and murderers. In fact Cyprus remains a pretty safe place to live and it is difficult to believe that there are many ordinary people living in fear and insecurity, as Nicolaou suggests citing the latest stats.
The stats for the first eight months of this year should be cause for concern for the authorities but it is a gross exaggeration to claim that suddenly everyone was living in fear. In the past eight months there were 2,109 break-ins and 1,004 thefts and 104 robberies of banks, kiosks and bakeries. This meant we had a daily average of 13 crimes per day, said Ionas, noting that there was 33 per cent increase these crimes on the same period last year.
If he gave stats for acts of vandalism, football-related violence and drug possession the picture may have been even bleaker. Predictably he blamed the government for the surge in crime, saying it “must not turn a blind eye to the lack of security in our country”. But what does he expect the government to do? Should the size of the police force be tripled so that there can be an officer on every street corner and outside every bank?
Social conditions have changed dramatically in Cyprus over the last 10 years, with the influx of tens of thousands of foreigners, loosening of family ties, rising incidents of anti-social behaviour and youth delinquency, a steep rise in heavy drug use, higher numbers of unemployed youngsters and so forth. All these changes, related to material progress, new demographics and rapid urbanisation cause a rise in crime, exacerbated by the economic recession.
The truth is that the criticism of the government is unjustified, as there is not that much the state could do other than speed up court cases and ask judges to impose tougher sentences. This is assuming that police start to catch more of the criminals, but it could take years to make the police force more effective in combating crime. In the meantime, people should start making their own arrangements – householders should consider installing burglar alarms, or CCTV, as many kiosks do, banks could employ security guards and all-night shops should keep a minimum amount of cash in their tills.
People need to take their own measures to protect their homes and businesses. Perhaps then this would reduce the alleged sense of insecurity that Nicolaou spoke about.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.