Criminals stealing copper power lines, garden ornaments, and memorial plaques.

Criminals stealing copper power lines, garden ornaments, and memorial plaques.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2038764/Crimewave-UK-Gangs-steal-power-lines-garden-ornaments-memorial-plaques.htmlCriminals stealing copper power lines, garden ornaments, and memorial plaques.

Social Misery Rising - Riots and Crime Wave in the UK

As reported in the "telegraph"

The full extent of the crimewave which affected London during this month’s riots has been revealed by the Metropolitan Police, with more than 3,000 individual crimes recorded over four days.

Scotland Yard disclosed there had been 3,296 offences linked to three nights of disturbances in the capital, including 162 arsons, 1,149 burglaries of homes and other premises.

Police received reports of 48 serious woundings, 32 common assaults, 412 robberies and 49 other violent crimes.

There were more than 1,100 burglaries of retail and commercial premises, and 48 reports of house-breaking.

Just under 70 homes were subjected to criminal damage, 400 vehicles were damaged and 10 were stolen.

There are also two investigations underway into the deaths of Richard Bowes, who was allegedly punched to the ground in Ealing, west London, and Trevor Ellis, who was shot dead in Croydon.

London riots, rural theft, and insurance co reported 20% increase in crime reports

This newspaper report shows a rise in property crime claims of 20%. Interestingly, these are crimes of electronics and transferable goods, not theft of food or life support materials.

The Daily Telegraph printed, "Britain’s biggest rural insurer reports that a sharp increase in crime is also blighting the countryside.... NFU Mutual – formerly the National Farmers’ Union financial arm – says claims for theft jumped by nearly 20pc last year to a total of £50m. But this analysis of policyholders’ claims reveals something more interesting than an equality of misery between rural and urban lawlessness."

The NFU Mutual Rural Crime Survey also "reports that the most popular targets for rural thieves were not livestock or crops but chainsaws, electric drills and lawnmowers."

Law enforcement and manufacturers are fighting back copper theives with technology

Copper thefts continue to be a major problem in some jurisdictions. While the copper wire stolen may be a minor part of a building infrastructure, HVAC, or roofing, the damaged caused in stealing the commodity can stretch many times the cost of loss. Manufacturers and law enforcement are fighting back with technology. Read the attached story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Crime wave watch -- small towns reducing police staff suffer crime increases

While the crime report numbers are too small to suggest much about a trend, it is interesting to observe that a few small towns that greatly reduced or eliminated their law enforcement budgets are now suffering from being 'free-crime' zones, or so it seems. Read the article and make your own conclusions.

In UK, Crime falls for fourth year in a row; budget cuts will test limits of policing

Crime continues to fall, surprising many, even this author, but most concerned are law enforcement agencies facing budget cuts. There is no dollar for dollar expense ratio that yields "X" level crime, so there should be no expectation that reductions in crime related spending will result in more crime; though there is an intuitive feel to the relationship. However, what the past few years have taught us is that there is that while pockets of crime around certain individuals increased, massive crime waves have not increased, excepting when accompanied with insurrection and overthrow of governments.

In Egypt, following outser of Mubarak, police withdraw, a crime wave develops

From the Los Angeles Times, "Since the revolution toppled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak last month, many of the police who became targets of the protesters' anger have failed to return to the streets, resulting in a crime wave that tears at the public's faith in the new government."

"Although precise numbers are unobtainable, government officials widely acknowledge that robberies, carjackings, sexual assaults and other crimes have been on the rise. The police absence is noted on street corners throughout the city."

"One officer, 28-year-old Ashraf Abdel Aal, said: "We will retake control slowly. So many people escaped from prison, and they have weapons and are more than willing to attack us."

Read the full article at: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-egypt-police-20110313,0,798037.story

Crime Wave Continues in Puerto Rico -- Homicide up!

Look no further than Puerto Rico to see a Crime Wave, homicide in 2011 is 28% higher than last year, reflecting 40 homicides more this year than in 2010 for the same period;

From the Latin American Herald Tribune;

SAN JUAN – The crime wave that is besetting Puerto Rico continued on the weekend with a triple murder in the Vega Baja district, bringing to 179 the number of murders so far in 2011, a figure that is 40 more than had been registered by the same date last year.

Police reported Monday that on Sunday three people were machine-gunned in the northern coastal town near a grocery store in the residential neighborhood of Brisas de Tortuguero.

The police report says that early on Sunday morning a man who arrived with two accomplices in an SUV opened fire on a group of people who were at the shop.

The victims may have been killed in a settling of scores linked to drug trafficking, the police said.