Luis F. Durán Madrid

Madrid

Updated Monday, March 18, 2024-14:48

Reports of sexual assaults increased by 90% in Madrid last year, while homicides decreased significantly (from 24 to 20), especially those perpetrated by members of youth gangs, which went from 19 to 12, including attempts.

This was stated this Monday by the authorities of the capital and the region after holding the council and the local security meeting in which, among others, the Government delegate in Madrid, Francisco Martín, and the mayor, José Luis, participated. Martínez-Almeida.

In their interventions, both agreed to consider Madrid as a "safe" city in which conventional crime has decreased by 0.2%, but in which the 14% increase in cybercrime is worrying, according to Efe.

According to Martín, the 90% increase in sexual assaults is due to the greater confidence of the victims when it comes to reporting, something that is not always easy since in 80% of the cases the aggressor is part of their environment.

The data highlights that the decrease in homicides does not affect those related to sexist violence, since the number of women murdered by their partners or ex-partners went from three in 2022 to four in 2023.

Events related to gender violence have increased by 7.3% to reach 13,422 crimes.

Likewise, hate crimes increased significantly, despite, Martín said, the difficulty in reporting them: from 43 to 61, especially those related to racism, which have gone from four to 17.

The Municipal Police increases its interventions

For his part, Martínez-Almeida has celebrated the 7% increase in interventions carried out by the Madrid Municipal Police, whose staff, although he has demanded that it continue to increase, has increased by 4%.

"That does not mean that they are enough and we continue to demand the elimination of the replacement rate, which prevents us from reaching 7,000 troops," he stressed.

Actions in relation to alcohol and drug intervention are on an ascending line, especially in vehicle controls and against street vending (30%), commented Almeida.

Also requests by police and judicial authorities to access the contents of the security cameras installed by the City Council in different parts of the city, which have increased by 41%.