Insecurity, theft and violence are the main causes of detention carried out by the Municipal Police in Madrid: 20% accumulate in these three categories and the Centro district is the most common place of the same misdeeds. The heart of the capital, where there is more transfer of people, has been appearing for years in the statistics as the area where more police actions occur, with a variation in recent times: the great increase in the number of thefts compared to last year. If from January to June 2022 there were 391 arrests for this type of crime, in the same period of 2023 we have already 608 people. The presence of tourists in places like Plaza Mayor or Puerta del Sol helps pickpockets concentrate there waiting for a distracted visitor. Although there are also more situations that illustrate the nightmare that some residents and merchants of this district live.

A little over two months ago, the murder of a well-known historical shop assistant in Tirso de Molina uncovered the fear with which people lived in the area. Embajadores (Lavapiés) and Sol are the other neighborhoods of Centro that suffer robberies and aggressions, some at the hands of people who get drunk and "puncture themselves at all times", as the neighbors of the area related those days. Almost three months later, a waiter who works a few meters from the Plaza de Tirso now comments to GRAN MADRID: "This is a red zone, especially on weekends. In the square of Tirso there are many vagabonds, people who sleep totally drunk in the street.

The data (obtained from the Madrid City Council) reflect that in the period from January to June of the years 2021, 2022 and 2023, 12,650 people were arrested in the capital, of which 2,606 were in the center. Puente de Vallecas is the region that continues with this ranking with 1,494 handcuffed; while Salamanca completes the podium with 1,000 detainees. On the side of the safest districts, or in which fewer crimes are committed, Vicálvaro (109), Barajas (119) and Moratalaz (130), are the places with the lowest number of intercepted. The three districts have the fewest inhabitants.

In addition to theft, sexual abuse and assault also increased. The Municipal Police arrested 24 people from January to June 2022, while this year there were 34, that is, 10 more people. However, what has fallen are those arrested for domestic and gender-based violence: from 479 in 2022 to 197 in 2023. These statistics can be simplified in that the seriousness of the events increased but the quantity decreased. The hunt for drivers who commit some type of crime circulating in their vehicle has also risen progressively. The most frequent are for driving under the influence of alcohol and / or drugs: 1,648 in 2,021, 1,838 in 2,022 and a total of 2,015 in 2,023. Road safety crimes are the reason why officers arrest more people in the city.

According to statistics provided by the Municipal Police, the other reasons for which people were arrested were for attack, resistance and disobedience to authority (760), against public health (709), injuries (507), falsification of documents (327), threats (327), robberies with violence or intimidation of persons (299), other crimes against property (219), against intellectual/industrial property (176), and damages (103).

After those already mentioned appear the crimes that show a figure less than one hundred: robbery with force in vehicles (96), robbery with force in buildings (84), ill-treatment of minors (84), robbery / theft and use of vehicles (69), and begging by minors (1). This last case occurred in February of this year, when two men of Romanian nationality forced a minor of 15 years to ask for money at the exit of a commercial establishment in the Salamanca neighborhood. A call alerted about the presence of the young woman who was begging by order of the Romanians, who would later be arrested.

And reviewing the statistics, another striking variant is discovered. In this case, meteorological. The cacos, according to the data, prefer warmer times for their wanderings. January and February, the middle of winter, are the two months in which the bodies made fewer arrests. It is in the spring when thefts in the Centro district skyrocket.

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