For communities living under sustained threat of what appears to be random
and escalating violence, it may be hard to believe what the statistics show:
that major crime is down. Statistics released today by the Police Department
compare the first six months of this year with the same period for last year.
According to the police, there were 1,720 major crimes in the first six months
of 2007 and only 1,556 major crimes for the first six months of this year –
a 9% decrease. The department says murders, robberies, burglaries, thefts, and
rapes are all down while reports of unlawful carnal knowledge are up.
The breakdown includes murders which have dropped from 50 in the first six
months of 2007 to 48 for January to June of this year. The majority of the murders,
24 to be precise, were in Belize City. 21 of the 24 were on the south side.
And while the murder rate is down – so too is the arrest rate.
And then there are robberies which decreased by 12%, burglaries by 11.4%, thefts
by 6.2%, and an interesting 35.7% reduction in rapes. Carnal knowledge however
is up by 14.9% when compared to the same period 2007. Also on the increase are
arrests for firearm possession. That is up 9.9%. These are the official figures
from police but only record the crimes actually reported to police.
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