Changing the scene

Nothing changes no matter how big a tragedy occurs in the metropolitan city of Karachi. Yes, for a few days, there is a lot of hue and cry and statements that promise such tragedies will not occur again. Take the example of the young businessman murdered brutally recently.

Yes there is an outpouring of grief and seemingly resolute pronouncements of not sparing the murderers and capturing anyone behind it but this is like there was such a resolute commitment when the young boy with his family visiting a shopping centre fell in an open manhole. A few days into the tragedy there was so much condemnation and call for steps to be taken to prevent such tragedies in the future that it seemed such a tragedy will not happen again but it did in other parts of the town and, according to a court application by a lawyer, 23 people lost their lives due to open manholes.

There is no individual or any one organisation that can be blamed for these tragic happenings but the whole system which has, over the years, become stagnant and requires complete overhaul as has been done in other countries of the world. One such example is Medellin in Colombia, which has over the years invested heavily in poor neighbourhoods and in its law-and-order machinery to vastly improve the law-and-order situation. A concrete identifiable result in Medellin should be an eye-opener for countries battling crime. Medellin’s homicide rate dropped 95 percent from 6,000 murders in a year to just 300.

Nationally Colombia’s murder rate fell by 60 percent from 2000 to the present. It is pertinent to mention that such ambitious targets were achieved not by just police raids or police brutality but by investment in the poorest localities. One example was the connection of slums to downtown jobs within 30 minutes instead of 2 hours. A two-edged sword against crime was the recovery of land from gangs and building libraries, schools and parks right in the middle of such areas once feared due to occupation of various gangs. Colombia’s tireless efforts to eradicate crime have won international recognition and its methodology so highly regarded that it is now used as a case study for “How to reclaim a city from gangs”.

There are other countries well known for their law and order and where tourists and locals can roam freely even at midnight without being afraid of being mugged or murdered. Closest to us is Singapore. Here everything is high tech and so is the control on law and order. Hold your breath, Singapore is covered by a mass surveillance network. No less than 90,000 police cameras also supported by thousands more in public housing and shops. The footage of all these cameras is fed into a central command centre. The collective data is analysed to spot patterns and deploy forces accordingly. Speed is of the essence and there is 10 to 11 minutes in response time. The result is an outstandingly safe country where violent crime, robbery and car theft are among the lowest in the world. In a recent survey 90 percent of the inhabitants declared that they feel safe in Singapore.

From Colombia to Singapore there is a constant struggle between criminals and law enforcement. There is a lot to learn from all this by our own law enforcers. It is time to adopt the latest methods and make use of the latest technology. Yes, there have been attempts in the recent past where technology has been used but mostly for petty violations like running a red light or not stopping at a stop sign. A more scientific approach to more serious crimes and a more organised system to detect criminals will vastly improve the situation. Lessons from Singapore and Colombia can help us change the crime scene, specifically in Karachi.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026