Criminal activity has halved since the pandemic began in Portugal

Crime has halved since the COVID-19 pandemic began, with pickpocketing theft being one of the crimes that fell the most, while fraud grown the most, according to a government report.

The report of the second period of the state of emergency, delivered to the Assembly of the Republic, indicates that the PSP recorded 7,852 crimes nationwide between March 13 and April 17, over 50% less than in the same period of 2019, when 17,458 occurred.

The data also shows that arrests made by the Public Security Police dropped 60.4% in the same period, from 2,780 in 2019 to 1,104 this year.

The period from March 13 to April 17 corresponds to the date on which the alert situation was declared due the virus, until the end of the second period of the state of emergency.

The report, signed by the Minister of Internal Affairs, states that the crimes that fell the most during that period, according to the PSP, were pickpocketing theft (-91.9%), driving with excess alcohol (-82.9%) , assault (-67.2%), motor vehicle theft (-58%), and theft of opportunity (-82.5%).

In turn, the crimes that rose the most in the areas controlled by the ??PSP, which operates in urban centres, were disobedience (94.3%), bank fraud (67.6%), other thefts (114.3%) and resisting arrest (12.8%).

In the report, in which the Government gives a detailed account of the measures adopted during the state of emergency, the PSP mentions that “there is an increased interest in the monitoring of some specific crimes”, namely domestic violence and fraud.

According to the PSP, between March 13 and April 17, 1,105 crimes of domestic violence were registered, 34.7% less than in the same period last year, when 1,692 complaints were made.

The number of detainees for domestic violence also dropped, with 27 fewer, from 88 to 61.

The PSP states that in crimes against property in general, which includes fraud, there is a decrease of 16%, noting that there was a “substantial increase in fraud, specifically bank fraud” and a slight increase in the number of complaints of computer fraud and communications.