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.

UK Trains delayed as theives steal copper wires from junction boxes

Here is an example of how theft of one item -- in this case copper, actually results in theft of time, and increase in safety risk. Consider the following story from the UK;

Copper thieves delay trains

RECORD numbers of UK trains are being delayed due to thieves stealing copper wires from junction boxes. The crimewave has seen 11,000 trains delayed over the last 12 month and around one million passengers made late as a consequence.

Network Rail first highlighted this problem in England’s north four years ago as a result of rising copper prices, and a taskforce was set up to address the worrying trend. Industry bosses estimate that £35m worth of copper wire has been stripped from railway lines since 2006, with £20m-worth stolen every year by 2014 if current rates continue to rise.

The problem of copper theft is particularly bad in England’s northeast which reports around 40 incidents every day. The raids became less profitable in late 2008 because of falling copper price around the world, but a recent rise has seen a resurgence of the trend to their worse levels ever.

Gangs are causing 500,000 minutes of otherwise avoidable delays every year by removing swaths of the rail network and ripping out cables attacked to trackside signals. Once rail signals lose current their lights revert to auxiliary power, immediately switching to red until engineers can arrive to fix the problem.

The Network Rail taskforce also includes train the British Transport Police (BTP) and railway operators, and focuses of securing tougher sentencing for thieves and rogue scrap dealers who act as middlemen that ‘fence’ the stolen material on.

Internet Crime Hits Record High in First Half in Japan; up 31.5%.

Internet Crime Hits Record High in First Half in Japan; up 31.5%. Police responded to a record 2,444 Internet crime cases nationwide in the first half of this year, a National Police Agency survey showed Thursday. The number, up 31.5% from a year earlier, represented a new high since the NPA started gathering statistics for Internet crimes, defined as crimes which use a computer network, on a half-yearly basis in 2004. (Source: Kyodo)