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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.

6,854 published reviews in this topic

DubawaCrime & justice

A Facebook post says South African Police were being attacked by Nigerians in Johannesburg

Publisher’s rating: Insufficient Evidence

The Facebook post alleged that Nigerians attacked South African Police in Johannesburg, accompanying the allegation with a 29-second clip. The review describes the footage as showing a crowd chasing and throwing stones at police vans as they left. Its central distinction is that the attack occurred, but the evidence cited did not establish the attackers’ nationality: the reports described them as foreign nationals or shop owners, not specifically as Nigerians. The review also says that the linked report did not mention Nigerians.

DUBAWACrime & justice

A claim that DSS has no jurisdiction to make arrests.

Publisher’s rating: False

The review investigates Afe Babalola’s categorical assertion that the DSS is “not to arrest.” It places the comment in the context of the agency’s 2016 raid on judges’ homes, which Babalola discussed on Channels TV News Night. The review says it had not authenticated the statement with Babalola, but checked the legal question by consulting the National Security Agencies Act and looking for relevant case-law precedent. The review describes the Act as establishing the State Security Service (SSS), rather than an agency named the Department of State Services. It says the Act assigns the SSS responsibility for preventing and detecting crimes against Nigeria’s internal security, protecting classified matters concerning internal security, and carrying out other internal-security responsibilities assigned by the National Assembly or President. The review found no provision in the Act or constitution categorically stating that the SSS cannot make arrests. That absence is the basis for rejecting the claim as an absolute statement of legal incapacity—not proof that the SSS has an unlimited or expressly stated power to arrest. The review stresses this distinction: the Act’s internal-security duties may be open to interpretation, but it does not expressly settle the agency’s arrest authority either way. Its conclusion is therefore narrower than saying that the law clearly grants the SSS a general arrest power.

FACTLYCrime & justice

Basti Police beating a man during their vehicle checking

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a video said to show Basti Police beating a man during vehicle checking on September 14, 2019. FACTLY’s review identifies the video as showing a real beating by Basti Police, but says the incident was not connected to vehicle checking and had occurred in November 2017. The review describes the man as disturbing peace in the locality while in an inebriated state. To investigate the video’s provenance, the review says it searched for reports using the terms ‘Basti police beat a man’ and found a Samachar Plus news video about the same footage. FACTLY reports that the video placed the incident in November 2017 and that a Patrika article dated November 14, 2017 corroborated the account that police beat the man for disturbing the peace. The review also cites a clarification from Basti Police, posted in response to a user’s tweet about the video. Police said the footage was from 2017 and was not of a vehicle-checking incident. Together, the reporting and police clarification distinguish the older beating depicted in the video from the later claim about the circumstances and date of the incident.

Fact CrescendoCrime & justice

Claim: Andhra Traffic police helps public

Publisher’s rating: Fact Crescendo Rating: Mixture

The review investigated a viral report that traffic police were helping people who violated traffic rules obtain helmets, licences and insurance documents instead of collecting fines. It identified the report as concerning the Rachakonda police commissionerate, in the Greater Hyderabad area, and found that the viral account wrongly presented the initiative as an Andhra Pradesh police effort. The review explains that Hyderabad is administered by Telangana, and that Rachakonda is one of three police commissionerates covering Greater Hyderabad. It says Rachakonda police introduced the assistance under the new motor vehicle law, with traffic police arranging the relevant helmet or documents at the location. Deputy Commissioner of Police Divya Charan Rao launched the initiative, and Telangana minister K. T. Rama Rao praised it. These details support the existence of the assistance while identifying the state attribution as the central error. The review also points to a mismatch within the reporting being circulated: its headline and opening described Andhra Pradesh, while its closing referred to praise from a Telangana minister. It says other English-language outlets reported the initiative correctly, whereas The Hindu’s report linked it to Andhra Pradesh. The review therefore concluded that the underlying account of assistance was partly accurate, but its attribution to Andhra police and Andhra residents was misleading.

FactcrescendoCrime & justice

This bus conductor from Kullu is a child kidnapper

Publisher’s rating: False

The review examines a September 2019 social-media post alleging that a man pictured after being beaten in Kullu was a bus conductor and had tried to kidnap a girl. It traces the image to a Facebook post dated 1 September 2019, which described the man as suspected of being a child kidnapper. The review’s account of contemporaneous reporting and its discussion with Kullu DSP Ashish Sharma instead describe a man who was attacked after people mistook him for a kidnapper. According to the DSP’s account, the incident happened at Gammon Bridge. The man, identified as Rakesh Kumar from Bilaspur, went to a water tank for a drink and greeted a child while asking about the tank. The child became frightened and cried; the review says the child’s parents had warned the child that kidnappers were around. Bystanders then suspected the man, searched his belongings, and misinterpreted a bottle of perfume as a chemical intended to incapacitate victims. The review reports that its investigators searched for “bus conductor kidnapper Kullu,” found a Punjab Kesari report about the beating and arrests, and contacted DSP Sharma. Its account does not support the allegation that the man attempted a kidnapping: it presents the incident as a mistaken suspicion that escalated into a beating. It also identifies the man as being from Bilaspur, rather than establishing that he was a Kullu bus conductor.

Pesa CheckCrime & justice

Body of missing dutch tycoon Tob Cohen found burried in his compound

Publisher’s rating: TRUE

Related reporting supports the claim that Tob Cohen’s body was found at his compound after he went missing. A Standard report states that “Cohen’s body was discovered in a septic tank days after he went missing.” It identifies the location as his Lower Kabete, Nairobi, residence and dates the murder to July 19, 2019. This supports the central claim, though the excerpt describes the precise location as a septic tank rather than simply saying the body was buried in the compound.

NewtralCrime & justice

Un hombre rompe el parabrisas de un tranvía en Zaragoza

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The review examined a video of a man breaking a tram windshield that was circulating as footage from Zaragoza or Granada. It reports that the images were not recorded in either Spanish city: they were filmed in Villeneuve-la-Garenne, in the Île-de-France region near Paris. The review says the footage was recent, but describes the Zaragoza and Granada locations attached to it as incorrect. [S1: “Nos habéis enviado a través de nuestro sistema de verificación de WhatsApp (+34 682 58 96 64) un vídeo de un hombre destrozando el parabrisas de un tranvía y que está circulando como si hubiera sido grabado en Zaragoza o en Granada. Sin embargo, estas imágenes no están grabadas en ninguna de las dos ciudades españoles. El vídeo sí es reciente, pero ocurrió en Villeneuve-la-Garenne, en la región de Île-de-France, cerca de París.”] To trace the footage, the review says it searched Google and social media in several languages using keywords about the incident. It places the event on Avenue de Verdun in Villeneuve-la-Garenne, just before the tram stopped at Chemin des Reniers. The review also notes that Granada Hoy had already rejected Granada as the location. [S1: “Con una búsqueda en varios idiomas en Google y redes sociales con palabras clave de lo ocurrido hemos encontrado el origen de estas imágenes, que fueron grabadas esta semana pasada. De hecho, son imágenes de las que se han hecho eco algún medio español, y que el diario Granada Hoy ya ha desmentido que su localización sea en la ciudad andaluza.”] [S1: “Los hechos ocurrieron, en concreto, en la Avenue de Verdun en Villeneuve-la-Garenne justo antes de detenerse en la para de Chemin des Reniers.”]

Fact CrescendoCrime & justice

Claim: Boy missing in Salem and found by police

Publisher’s rating: Fact Crescendo Rating: False

The claim concerns a viral Facebook post showing a boy at a police station and asking people to help find his parents. The post identified him as Senthil and gave Mecheri police station’s phone number. Fact Crescendo investigated that specific post and found it was old, rather than a current missing-child alert: it traced the same text to a post published by the Mecheri police on the Mettur–My Mettur Facebook page on June 4, 2018. To check what had happened to the boy, the review called the number included in the post. A Mecheri police sub-inspector confirmed it was the station’s number and said the post referred to a boy who had escaped from Mother Teresa Home in June 2018. The officer said police returned him to that home after searching for him for several days. Thus, the post did not establish that a boy was currently missing or still waiting at the police station for his parents; it recirculated an old request after, according to the police account reported in the review, the boy had been placed back at the institution. The review’s conclusion is based on the post’s earlier appearance and the police station’s account of the boy’s subsequent return. It does not say that the boy was reunited with his parents: the reported destination was the children’s home. The review therefore calls the circulating post false as a current appeal and asks readers not to share it further.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturCrime & justice

In einem Facebook-Post werden zwei Gerichtsurteile gegenübergestellt: Für die Vergewaltigung eines neunjährigen Mädchens gab es demnach fünfeinhalb Jahren Haft für den angeklagten Nigerianer. Im anderen Fall seien für «Böller an Moscheetür» 11,5 Jahre Haft verhängt worden, heißt es im Sharepic. Im Beitext korrigiert der Urheber diese Zahl auf «fast zehn Jahre» und erwähnt, dass hier ein Deutscher für eine Tat «ohne Opfer» verurteilt worden sei

Publisher’s rating: Mit dem Beitrag soll insgesamt ein Missverhältnis zwischen den beiden Urteilen ausgedrückt werden. Zum Fall «Böller an Moscheetür», der sich in Dresden ereignet habe, fehlen wichtige Angaben. Der Post beschreibt lediglich eine «angekokelte Tür», lässt aber außen vor, dass der Täter den Tod von Menschen billigend in Kauf nahm. Der Bombenleger wurde 2018 für versuchten Mord und das Herbeiführen von Sprengstoffexplosionen verurteilt.