Ministry of Defense announces increase in foot of force in Bogotá

Security remains one of the problems that most distress the population of Bogotá. The figures presented this Tuesday by the Secretary of Security show that six of the thirteen so-called high-impact crimes continue to record high figures, even exceeding those of 2021.

For that reason, on Tuesday afternoon, a security event was held in the capital of the Republic, attended by the Minister of Defense, Diego Molano, who said that the national government seeks to increase the force in Bogotá with nearly 4,000 uniformed personnel.

During his speech, the official said, “We have a deep commitment and that was President Duque's instruction, to seek to increase the strength of the capital that had 18,000 police officers and we want it to end in 22,000 by the end of this year. That means more force for more security.”

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Likewise, the two crimes that demonstrate the increase in insecurity in the city were theft and personal injury.

The first increased by 16.8% compared to 2021; that is, in the first quarter of 2022, 27,205 cases were registered, which means an increase of 3,915 cases from year to year. On the other hand, in terms of personal injury, there was a negative growth of 10.4% from 2021 to 2022, from 5,216 to 5,757 events, respectively.

The other crimes that have increased significantly in 2022 are: motorcycle theft that grew by 7.7%, cell phone theft, which so far recorded 14,469 complaints so far this year, equivalent to a 5.9% increase; car theft that increased by 7.2%; and finally, sexual crimes, which reported a increase of 1.2 per cent.

Minister Molano's statements and announcements were made during the event 'Let's talk about citizen security', where he shared with the community in the town of San Cristóbal, south of Bogotá, to address their concerns. In addition, it handed 228 new uniforms to the police in the area.

In the same vein, Molano reiterated the importance of implementing the Security Law, which, according to him, “will allow greater control of traumatic weapons that so much affect citizen security. In this case, they are the ones that used to be used for sports and that were not supposed to cause any damage, today the streets are full of traumatic weapons, more than 500,000 are in the whole country and these bandits do not use them for sports, but to steal with the knife,” he said.

Finally, the head of the Defense portfolio stated that, “what they do is modify them, give them no longer a rubber ball, but some kind of metal to affect the integrity, life and of a policeman or citizen, that is complex. That is why this law provides more instruments to control these traumatic weapons and firearms, which is what causes the most damage to society.”

For its part, the local government specified that the necessary measures continue to be taken to be able to deal with crime. The spokesman was the security secretary, Aníbal Fernández de Soto, who said: “There are more than 350 police officers of different specialties, with the capacity for faster and more forceful action against the robbery, strengthening criminal investigation and intelligence efforts, with the interconnection of surveillance cameras and the technological support of a drone of latest technology, in addition to the ongoing support of the Police”.

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