TCI: Commissioner James Smith on Quarterly Crime Stats for January – April 2018

#TurksandCaicos, May 03, 2018 – Providenciales –  “Crime overall has reduced by 14% when compared to the same period last year, that means 364 less crimes.  This follows on from a 14% reduction 16/17 and 26% reduction in 15/16.  Taken together that means in the last three years crime in Turks and Caicos has gone down 32% – so nearly one-third reduction.”

“It is also worth noting that our detection rate has gone from 21% last year to 28% this year meaning more victims will see offenders brought to justice.  In addition, the average number of crimes per day has obviously continued to fall and we now see an average of 6 crimes per day across the entire country.”

“We will always tend to focus our efforts on the most serious crimes because they have the biggest impact on victims.”

“I am pleased to report that the number of murders this year has reduced by 42% down from 7, to 4. We would like to see this continue to fall and we will keep a focus on murder prevention in the coming year.”

Burglaries and aggravated burglaries also have a major effect on victims and I am pleased to report that they are down significantly, by 47 % from 703 last year to 376 this year.  I would ask householders and businesses to continue to do that they can to make it difficult for burglars to enter their property.

“I can report that Robberies are down by 11%, 118 compared to 134 last year.  We still have some way to go to bring this down further, but I am confident that changes in the pipeline will assist us here.”

“We saw a rise in Firearms offences this year up by 8 % or 11 offences, from 126 last year to 137 this year.  We will be introducing some new initiatives in the coming year to try and assist us in recovering firearms held illegally in the country.”

“We also saw a reduction in the number of persons arrested for possession of drugs and possession of drugs with intent to supply by 17 and 4 percent respectively.  I do not believe this means there are less drugs in the country but that we have been less successful in interdicting them.”

“I hope you will congratulate the officers and staff for this fantastic achievement”.

Release: RTCIPF