Jižní Město is dealing with the problem of increasing crime, even the mayor was robbed there
“They stole the catalytic converter from my old car. I went to the Spojovna restaurant, which is on the border of Prague 11. I left my Felicia parked there until the next day, when I visited it with a torn exhaust and no catalytic converter. It is more valuable in older cars – it contains more platinum,” says Dohnal, according to whom thieves can get up to four thousand crowns for a stolen car part. Fixing the problem cost the then mayor over ten thousand crowns.
The theft of car parts keeps Prague police officers busy every day. “This year, we dealt with 424 cases of theft of parts from motor vehicles, including catalytic converters. There were 423 of them in 2021. In 2020, there were 1,315 of these cases. However, in October 2020, there was a change in the amount of damage, when the crime was qualified for damage from 5,000 crowns, says police spokesman Jan Daněk. So the data is not accurate.
The exception when crime dropped was during the quiet period of covid when people were not allowed to go out. Now, according to the former mayor, crime figures in Prague 11 are on the rise again.
The police of the Czech Republic adds that it also registers the same problem with crime in the vicinity of other Prague housing estates. In the fight against increasing crimes, law enforcement officers focus mainly on prevention. “Several times a month, various security events take place all over Prague, including in these locations,” confirms Daněk.
Seniors robbed
The new mayor of Prague 11, Šárka Zdeňková from Hnutí pro Praha 11 (HPP 11), adds that among the problems is also the appearance of non-adaptable citizens.
“We are also troubled by vandalism. The anonymity of the housing estate and the large number of cars and people in one place contribute to the unfavorable situation. The situation is long-term unhappy, for example, at Háje and Opatov metro stations,” describes Zdeňková. In the HPP 11 election program, it states, among other things, that crime must not flourish in the city district and that the roads should be safe, lit and maintained.
The words of the mayor, that the area around the metro station is particularly problematic, is confirmed by one of the clients, Petr Palivec, in two cases of assaults on residents of a care home in Šalounova Street.
“When the neighbors were walking from the Opatov metro towards us to Šalounova, their handbags were stolen. In one case, a man even went with a woman, and a group of young people took the elderly woman’s purse anyway. Both cases occurred this fall,” says Palivec.
As the new mayor, Zdeňková is planning a police patrol. The municipal part of the city has been solving the problem in the vicinity of the mentioned metro stations since this autumn by introducing patrols, which call the municipal and state police for assistance.
Two-man patrols of the security agency regularly check the order in the vicinity of the station as well as at several other buildings. “We introduced the patrols because in the last year there has been a significant increase in complaints from citizens not only at the Háje metro station, but also near the shopping center at Hviezdoslavova street and also at the Opatov metro station,” says the former deputy mayor of Prague 11, Martin Sedeke (ODS).
The Zdravá Praha 2021 emotional map also points to the fact that there are problems around the Háje metro. A number of people marked this area with red dots, which mean that they are afraid there. There are even more brown ones. They show that this is a neglected area that deserves reconstruction.
Problems with young people are increasing
According to the crime map of the Police of the Czech Republic at the Háje metro station, police officers solved 176 conflicts over the past year, including problems with alcohol or drug addiction, shoplifting and offenses against public order and civil coexistence.
There are even more problems around the Westfield Chodov shopping center, where there have been a total of 1,078 police-assisted incidents over the past 365 days. In the minority, it is violent criminal activity, there is no shortage of theft, burglary and pickpocketing.
“We have to keep in mind what we relate the number of certain crimes or misdemeanors to. For example, pickpocketing is not only related to the number of those who work in the place, but also those who are just passing through,” says Martin Šimon from the Institute of Sociology of the Academy of Sciences.
The municipal district also deals with youth offenses more often. “There has been an increase in spray-painting, which we deal with by delineating legal areas for graffiti or by working with colleagues from the low-threshold club Proxima Sociale,” says Pavel Krčílek, head of crisis management at the Prague 11 City Hall. . on life’s journey.