Where are the Royal TCI Police Crime Statistics, Botting departs with 2022-2023 info outstanding

Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer 

#TurksandCaicos, November 10, 2023 – With evidence of availability, it’s unclear why Turks and Caicos crime statistics have not been shared with the public for the 2022 and 2023 periods as we approach 2024.

In a lengthy response to Magnetic Media queries regarding accusations of poor record keeping and management structure following a UK review of the Force, Trevor Botting, outgoing Police Commissioner included a single paragraph comparing crime stats for the January to September period of 2022 and 2023.

Magnetic Media can inform that for the January to September period, there has been a 29 percent decrease in murders; 29 homicides in 2022 down to 15 in 2023.

Additionally, robberies dropped 55 percent; 65 in 2002 vs 29 in the 2023 period.

Aggravated burglaries dropped 39 percent from 38 to 23 and there was a 63 percent decrease in the discharge of firearms.

While the decreases are welcomed, the fact that two months away from 2024 the publicly funded police is still holding 2022 crime statistics under lock and key could be considered a dereliction of duty.

It must also be noted that the data does not include October to December 2022,  that nothing was shared on the other serious crimes like domestic violence, child abuse, rape and woundings. There was no information on the demographics of perpetrators, victims or gang activity and nothing was divulged on the progress of unsolved cases locally.

Magnetic Media has requested the full report but up to news publication time has received no response.