Police in 2005 turned over 1.5 million criminal cases to prosecutors, a 1.8 percent drop from the previous year, but cyber crimes rose as more people were defrauded in Internet auctions, the Justice Ministry said Tuesday.

Of the total, nonvehicular penal code offenses declined 2.7 percent to 649,782 cases, the ministry said in its annual white paper.

"The total number of reported crimes has declined since it peaked in 2002," the paper says, claiming neighborhood vigilance that became more widespread in the last couple of years in the wake of heinous crimes targeting children may have contributed to the decline in overall crime.