Murder stats down in first months of 2012

The bodies piled up at the City morgue, where we are told, there is no more room left following the past weekend’s murders, drownings and traffic accidents. But is crime up? We checked our internal statistics for the first three and a half months of last year, and the matching period this year. Here is what News Five’s Delahnie Bain found out. 

Delahnie Bain, Reporting

Four persons were killed in the past weekend’s bloodshed, but statistically murders are on the decline. According to our records, there have been twenty-eight murders since the start of 2012 but in 2011, there were already thirty-six homicides by April eleventh, a decrease of eight. Looking at the figures by district, the majority of the killings continue to take place in the Belize District, but this year there are less than in 2011. So far, there have been seventeen murders in the district; that’s ten less than the twenty-seven that were committed during the same period last year. Orange Walk, Corozal and Stann Creek remain the same with three, two and one murders respectively since the start of the year. Meanwhile, Cayo is up from three to four murders and Toledo is up from zero to one. It is also notable that no women or minors have yet been murdered in 2012. But by this time last year, there were four minors on the list of victims; the youngest and only girl being twelve year old Janessa Jones.  Four women had also been killed in the same period. Delahnie Bain for News Five.

An estimated eight hundred and eighty thousand dollars were spent on a gang truce between September and January of this year to put a lid on the violence but despite the dip, crime remains a top concern for citizens.