The Bruxelles-Capitale-Ixelles area has just submitted its annual activity report for 2013. Reported figures on criminality show a considerable decrease. In the period between the 2009 launch of a new zonal security plan and 2013, armed robbery, for example, went down by 64%, from 191 incidents in 2009 to 69 in 2013, reported Sudpresse newspapers on Tuesday. A similar downward trend was seen for bag-jacking, down from 456 cases in 2009 to 79 in 2013, a drop of 83%.
The number of thefts of items from vehicles has also gone down, decreasing by 46% between 2008 (9,810 thefts) and 2013, in spite of a slight increase in 2011.
The number of burglaries however remains relatively stable, with 4,358 reported in 2013.
In contrast, there was a jump in fines; for noise problems (589 in 2009 compared to 1,513 in 2013) and for public cleanliness issues, a figure which jumped from 331 in 2009 to 1047 ??in 2013 (+216%).
(Source: Belga)
