BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, Jan.17.2018 – OVER 200 more crimes were recorded in 2017, and the local police force notes a decrease in homicides/manslaughters when compared with 2016 but several other areas saw increases over the same period.
At a press conference yesterday at the Police Training School, Commissioner of Police, Ian Queeley gave an overall assessment of statistics for the entire year, disclosing that homicides were down 26 percent.
He disclosed that in 2016, the force had on record 31 homicides while last year saw 26 committed.
“There was also a decrease in Shooting at with Intent, with 26 in 2016 to 17 in 2017; and that was down by 35 percent,” Queeley said. “Attempted Murder decreased as well, with 28 being committed in 2017 as compared with 37 in 2016, down by 24 percent.”
Also seeing a decrease was the category of Wounding with Intent with the use firearms, according to Commissioner of Queeley, and a slight decrease in sexually related crimes and break-ins.
There was a 30 percent increase of firearms removed from the streets last year when compared against the previous year.
In 2017 there were 47 reportedly removed, up from 36 the previous year.
Additionally, CoP Queeley disclosed that of the 47 removed, 38 of those cases saw persons being made answerable.
“This again, I must say, is commendable when we view that against the variety and caliber of guns that we took off the street. As you can see our proactive enforcement led to an increase in some areas, and that is fine.”
It was further highlighted that the force saw an increase in the overall number of crimes being committed, as 2017 had on record a 203 increase in offenses committed.
That points to an overall increase of 12 percent, the Commissioner revealed.
In a startling disclosure, the top cop explained that 160 of the 203 more crimes committed were directly related “to drug operations and firearms”.
Moreover, he pointed out that Robbery and Malicious Damage are crimes of serious concern to the police force.
According to Queeley, increases in malicious damage saw a 46 percent jump, while robberies had a 26 percent increase.
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