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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Crime & justice fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about crime & justice. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

6,837 published reviews in this topic

FACTLYCrime & justice

Criminals are giving out free key rings to people at petrol stations and shopping centres which enables them to track and rob people

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns key rings allegedly distributed for free at petrol stations and shopping centres as a way to track people before robbing them. FACTLY traces the allegation to a 2008 promotion in South Africa: Caltex gave customers branded key rings with flashing devices intended to draw attention to the brand. The review reports that warnings about hidden tracking devices circulated in emails during that period, but does not present evidence that the promotional key rings tracked recipients. The review describes responses from both police and the company. South African police spokesperson Superintendent Vincent Mdunge said the claims were untrue and that police were investigating where the emails originated. Caltex spokesperson Miranda Anthony assured customers the key rings contained no tracking device. FACTLY also reports that when the rumour resurfaced in Malaysia in 2016, police said it was untrue and that they had received no reports of such incidents. As additional context, FACTLY says the tracker-style key rings shown in the viral post were available for sale online for about ₹150 and used Bluetooth, typically within 10 metres, to help locate lost keys at home. That describes a consumer key-finding device, not evidence that criminals were distributing it or using it to track and rob people. The review characterizes the broader claim as an old rumour that had circulated without supporting evidence.

Vera FilesCrime & justice

Wala nang hurisdiksyon ang International Criminal Court sa Pilipinas kasunod ng pagkalas ng bansa sa Rome Statute.

Publisher’s rating: Kailangan ng Konteksto

Research from related reporting concerns the same jurisdiction claim, made by Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa. A GMA News report says Dela Rosa argued that the ICC no longer had jurisdiction in the Philippines because the country withdrew from the Rome Statute in 2019. The report also records a separate legal argument from his team: that an ICC warrant is not automatically enforceable locally and would require judicial confirmation. These are reported positions, not a finding by the report that the ICC lacks jurisdiction. A separate report quotes Justice Secretary Fredderick Vida recognizing ICC jurisdiction over cases that occurred before the Philippines’ 2019 withdrawal. It says Vida also cited a 2021 Supreme Court ruling in *Pangilinan v. Cayetano*, described as holding that a country’s obligations do not disappear simply because it withdraws from the ICC. This evidence distinguishes jurisdiction over earlier conduct from the question of how an arrest warrant may be enforced in the Philippines. The supplied excerpts do not provide the original Vera Files investigation or enough detail to assess its full legal analysis.

Vera FilesCrime & justice

The International Criminal Court no longer has jurisdiction over the Philippines following its withdrawal from the Rome Statute.

Publisher’s rating: Needs Context

Related reporting describes the ICC rejecting former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s challenge to its jurisdiction. The allegations concern murders during his anti-drug campaign, including when he was mayor of Davao from 2013 to 2016 and president until March 2019, when the Philippines withdrew from the ICC. The report says Duterte’s defence argued that the court lacked jurisdiction because the country was no longer subject to the Rome Statute; prosecutors argued that the alleged crimes occurred while the Philippines was still a member. (S2) The report says ICC judges had initially ruled that the investigation into Duterte began before the withdrawal, and that the appeals court rejected the defence challenge to that decision. This is evidence against the blanket assertion that withdrawal ended the ICC’s jurisdiction over all conduct in the Philippines: the reported ruling allows proceedings concerning alleged crimes during the period of membership to continue. It does not establish that the ICC has jurisdiction over conduct occurring after withdrawal. (S2)

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaCrime & justice

පෑලියගොඩ අධිවේගි පිවිසුම අසල රාත්‍රියේදී සංවිධානාත්මක මංකොල්ල කණ්ඩායමක් ?

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

The review examined social-media warnings alleging that an organized gang robbed motorists near the Peliyagoda entrance to the Colombo–Katunayake Expressway after midnight. The circulated account described a group stopping vehicles and claiming to have run out of fuel before robbing them. The review reports that it found no mainstream-media report of such an incident, then sought information from police rather than treating the circulating warning as verified evidence. According to the review, the Peliyagoda police station’s officer-in-charge said no complaint had been received about a group getting into vehicles at night and robbing people. Dematagoda police officers likewise said they had received no information or complaint about such a gang. These statements establish what those police stations told the reviewers; they do not, by themselves, prove that no unreported incident occurred. The review also asked police spokesperson Senior Superintendent Nihal Thalduwa whether robberies near expressway entrances had been reported. He said no such information or incident had been reported to the police division by any police station, and that complaints would be expected if such incidents had occurred. The review concluded that the specific social-media warning was misleading, based on the absence of reports to the two stations and the division and the spokesperson’s account—not on evidence identifying a verified robbery or gang.