Bogota Police said Monday that homicides in the Colombian capital had more than halved in the week following the introduction of a gun ban, reported news program CM&.
Bogota Metropolitan Police Commander General Luis Eduardo Martinez declared that the first weekend of the ban had seen a 41% reduction in crime and 55% reduction in homicides in the city.
Between Friday and Sunday, eight homicides were committed in Bogota, a figure which Martinez said represented a record reduction of weekend violence.
In addition to the drop in crime and violence, Martinez unveiled a campaign of the Directorate of Traffic and Transportation to reduce motorcycle accidents in the city, which resulted in 2000 deaths in 2011.
The gun ban, introduced by new mayor Gustavo Petro, is currently undergoing a 90-day trial period.
In introducing the ban, Petro pointed to the fact that 1,016 of the 2,632 homicides recorded in the city in 2011 were committed with firearms, with up to 30% of these carried out using legally-held weapons.
Bogota is the second major Colombian city to introduce a gun ban, after Medellin imposed a similar measure last month.
