Grenade attacks up; but police statistics say crime is down

The year 2009 was a particularly violent twelve months. While that is the public’s perception, the Police Department says not so. Their statistics, released on Wednesday, show that crime decreased during last year, especially in the last quarter.

It may be hard to believe considering that there were a staggering seven thousand plus crimes reported between January first and December thirty-first 2009. But compared to 2008, the stats show fewer reports in all categories of criminal activity.

Major crimes were down four point four percent, not quite the ten percent that Commissioner Jeffries was aiming for. More specifically: murders dropped by six percent with a total of ninety-seven homicides in 2009 as opposed to a hundred and three in 2008. There were also notable decreases in rapes, which had a twenty-one percent fall and carnal knowledge, with thirty-seven percent decrease. Throughout the year the dominant crimes were robberies, burglaries and thefts and even those reduced in over the overall statistics. Burglaries and robberies were down only by one percent, while thefts went down by six percent.

The month of May had the highest number of reported offences with a total of seven hundred and fifty-eight. Meanwhile, there were only four hundred and seventy-one in December… the lowest for 2009.

In comparison with 2008, there was also an increase in the number of arrests made last year. There was a total of fifteen point three percent more arrests made in the categories of Major Crimes, Other Crimes, and Summary Jurisdiction Offences.

And as usual, the Eastern Region of the country, the Belize District which includes San Pedro and Caye Caulker, had the majority of the offences with thirty-six percent. The western and northern regions had twenty-two percent each and the south maintained the smallest amount of crimes with twenty percent