According to a recent survey, only one in 10 local residents believes Saigon is safe.
Following a spate of high-profile robberies in the city, one Tuoi Tre contributor conducted a 120-person survey regarding safety in the southern hub. The survey's respondents included adult residents living in Districts 1, 2, 3 and 7 as well as Binh Thanh, Tan Binh and Go Vap Districts.
Overall, just 10.8% of respondents characterized the city as “safe”, while 45.8% viewed the city as “unsafe”.
Over a third of the survey's participants had witnessed at least one street robbery, while 17.5% of respondents had been the victim of a street crime themselves.
“Falling victim to a robber was a frightening feeling,” one such participant told Tuoi Tre. “I felt psychologically hurt to see such brazen robbers in a modern city like Ho Chi Minh City, and I am terrified whenever I have to go out in the street.”
On the whole, women were less positive than men about the city's safety, with 49.2% of female respondents saying they felt unsafe in the southern hub. Elderly residents were also less confident in the safety of the city.
At least half of participants blamed these crimes on issues such as drug use, unemployment, gambling and online gaming, while 15% blamed a lack of surveillance cameras in the city for failing to prevent street crime. Over 55% of respondents also called for harsher penalties for criminals, while 47.5% supported more frequent police crackdowns on street crime.
In recent months, HCMC Party Secrectary Dinh La Thang has called for a reduction in street crime around the city.
“What matters is identifying the reasons why criminals are unfazed by the added police effort,” the news outlet quoted Thang as saying.
According to Le Dong Phong, director of the municipal police department, crime has been on a slow decline in recent months. Between March and May of this year, crime dropped 6.83% compared to the same period last year and 5.4% from the three months prior.
[Photo via Thanh Nien]
