BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – COMMISSIONER OF POLICE Ian Queeley has reported that major crimes in St. Kitts and Nevis are trending downwards but serious crimes have increased marginally, when compared with statistics from 2016.
Queeley, speaking at a press conference at the Police Training Complex in Newtown on Thursday (Aug. 25), explained that statistics as of August 22, 2017 points to a situation of a decline in serious crimes across the Federation when compared with the same period last year.
The statistics also points to an improvement in the detection rate, the COP said, adding that “total crimes increased by seven or 0.6% in spite of an increase in drug offences by some 66 crimes or 37%, when compared to the corresponding period last year”.
Going further, COP Queeley stated that the decrease in the category of serious crimes is worthy of “noting”, stressing that homicides also declined.
For the same period in 2016, the Federation had recorded 23 homicides, compared with 8 thus far.
The Commissioner declared that there were also other areas where the Force had seen reductions: “Attempted murder from 29 to 18 or 38%, shooting at with Intent from 17 to 12, or 29%, and grievous bodily harm from 90 to 82 or 9%.”
Additionally, he disclosed that crimes against property (break-ins and larcenies) also saw decreasing numbers.
According to the Commissioner, crime against property is often the largest perpetrated, but thus far in 2017, they have seen it trending downwards.
“Break-in offences declined by 7% [and] larceny by 19%. However, there were slight increases in sexual crimes by three crimes or 9%, and robberies by four crimes or 10%,” Queeley said.
In addition to the decline in crime, the Police Force’s statistics also shows improvement in its detection rate of major crimes, Queeley emphasized.
The overall detection rate for last year stood at 37% and has moved to 41.1%.
“Homicides have moved from 17% to 38.9%, attempted murder from 27% to 55.5%, shooting at with intent from 11.7% to 41.6%.”
However, in the case of less serious crimes, the Force has not had much success in their detection, according to Queeley.
With regards to malicious damage, the Commissioner noted that that offence is one of those less serious crimes that are of concern to investigators, as it continues to show a steady increase over a three-year period.
He said that most reports of malicious damage are incidents where persons were attempting to break into others vehicles and damage was caused during the process.
Queeley explained that those who reported of damage, some of them had locked their parked vehicles while others did not.
He stressed that some people do not pay attention to the “Safety Tips” that the Force puts out on a regular basis, and noted that parking in isolated areas presents crimes of opportunity to criminals.
