The uptick in home robberies revealed in last week’s edition of the Guadalajara Reporter has lakeside area foreign residents worried that a crime wave may be in progress. It is impossible to gauge whether that is a fact or rather a common wisdom perception of rising insecurity.
Statistics on criminal complaints registered for Chapala, retrieved by this newspaper from different sources, are confusing to say the least.
Chapala Police Commander Adán Dominguez says his office has opened more than 140 criminal investigation files since February, including 22 burglary cases.
Contrast that with figures cited by the local district attorney’s office (MP), showing only 12 burglary complaints filed since the start of the year, with not a single home invasions on record as of last week.
Measure that against data posted on the state Attorney General’s Office (FGE) website indicating a general increase in criminal complaints for Chapala, climbing from 246 from January through May 2015, to 338 in the same period this year.
A breakdown shows a total of 36 home burglary complaints lodged during the first five months of 2016, with 15 alone during May. On the bright side, the numbers compare favorably against the 45 burglaries registered in the same time frame in 2015.
On the other hand, FGE figures indicate that business robberies have gone up from 20 to 32 over the past year, while auto theft (including motorcycles and cargo trucks) soared from 19 to 32. How then does the Chapala police chief claim that auto theft has dropped by 80 percent?
His analysis of the local crime index concludes that among 57 different types of crimes listed by FGE, 37 show a downward trend while 20 others are stable or slightly on the rise.
Discrepancies in statistics held by different agencies may appear because some crimes occurring in Chapala are reported to MP offices in other localities.
Dominguez stressedd that the FGE figures are simply indicative of the number of criminal complaints registered on its books, which could mean that more victims are reporting to the authorities rather than pointing to a true spike in crime. Still he acknowledges that Mexico’s law enforcement community operates under the premise that only one in ten crime victims report to the authorities.
One expat member of Chapala’s newly formed Public Security Council told the Reporter that many foreigners are reluctant to report crimes to police or the MP for fear of reprisals. Unfortunately, from an official perspective any crime that goes unreported never happened.
Residents are reminded that under the new justice system, municipal police can now register criminal offenses through a simplified process employing written forms. Also a bilingual official is assigned to duty at the Chapala MP office, Calle Juarez 573, tel. 765-2415, hours 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Visits to the Lake Chapala Society are normally scheduled twice a month on alternate Wednesdays from 10 a.m. The next date is July 27. Notices appear in the LCS newsletter and on its Facebook page.