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Police in Ho Chi Minh City announced that the streets became notably safer in 2016.
At a press conference held Wednesday, an agency spokesman said overall criminal cases fell by 13.3 percent from a year ago to 5,200.
The crimes included rape, murder, assault, robbery, theft, snatching, and resisting government officials. By comparison, Los Angeles, a city with a comparable population, had reported over 5,300 robberies alone by July.
In southern Vietnam, robberies fell by 30 percent, while reports of street snatchings fell 11.5 percent and theft dropped over 16 percent.
Police arrested nearly 9,800 members of 2,400 criminal gangs, including “dangerous, organized syndicates".
Le Dong Phong, the municipal police chief, said the results are positive but not satisfactory, as the city continues to lack a sustainable solution to crime.
The city's booming economy has caused rapid boom in the city's population; recent survey said one in five of the city's residents are rural migrants. The city ranked the 18th fastest growing tourist city in the world since 2009 with 9.22 percent annual growth, according to a MasterCard survey in 2009.
Meanwhile, over five million foreigners visited the city in 2016, a 10 percent increase from the previous year.
Street crime remains a major obstacle for the industry.
In 2015, the city’s tourism department recorded around 130 robbery and snatch-and-grab cases involving foreign tourists.
Last April, the city installed surveillance cameras on downtown streets. Several residential areas also purchased cameras using private funds. Police said the number of cameras in use remains too small to make a significant difference.
In October 2014, police in Pham Ngu Lao Ward (also known as the "backpacker area") handed out leaflets that advised tourists to keep their bags close to their bodies, avoid wearing precious jewellery and avoid "being flashy" with cameras and phones.
It also offered advice on selecting taxis, cyclos and xe oms (motorbike taxi).
Tourists posted appreciative comments on social media, but the city aborted the campaign after a couple of weeks following complaints from tour companies who believed it painted an ugly image of the city.
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