Earlier we told you about the year’s 90th murder victim, 27 year
old Dewayne Lopez. He is the 5th murder victim for December and even with 16
days to go in the month and in the year – that’s still 8 murders
short of last year’s 98 homicides. And that’s why the police high
command today boldly pronounced that crime is down and arrests are up. They
hosted the media at a Christmas luncheon after which Police Commissioner Crispin
Jeffries trotted out a slideshow presentation with bar graphs and tables as
proof that crime is rising down.
Crispin Jeffries, Commissioner of Police
“I can also boastfully say that murder is down. Down by more than
ten but it shouldn’t be boastfully said about.”
But Police Commissioner Crispin Jeffries did boast about the decrease in murders
and other major crimes.
Crispin Jeffries,
“For 2008 we had 98 murders and this year we have 89, and Mr. Magdaleno
just confirmed 90 because while we were here eating, a person who was shot last
week died this morning. So we have gone up to 90.
We have gone down in theft, carnal knowledge, to a total of 150 major crimes
than we were at this time last year.
We are not there yet with my promise to reduce crime by 10% but we are
very close as the statistical figures will show you. In fact we are more than
9% close but we have a couple days to go. All indications are that we will be
less than but very close to that ten percent expectation.”
But robberies and thefts are up. Commissioner Jeffries blames those on the
recession.
Crispin Jeffries,
“Robbery has gown up by eight incidents or a miniscule 2%. Burglary
have gone up by 14 incident, burglaries are always going to be one of the crimes
that challenges us. The Police Department like other organizations is feeling
the side effect or the after effect of the economic situation. The recession,
as people would call it, has impacted and it is now for us to mobilize and show
that resilience to deal with it and we’re doing that. We are succeeding
marginally but it is a start. We believe that Belizeans as economic conditions
improve will begin to have security?”
So what’s working? Well Jeffries says they are keeping one step ahead
of criminals.
Crispin Jeffries,
“The strategy is that the police must know. The police must study
the pattern of crime and we must be able to gather information and pre-empt
the offending. That is if we know that these are the likely targets, we do something
we call target hardening. That is we alert the proprietors, we put a presence,
and we try and remove the likely person or persons who we know have been moving
around in these areas, casing these places with a view to commit a crime.”
It wasn’t mentioned in the story but the incidents of rape are
down by 10%. The year’s most peaceful month was October and the most violent
was January. The police also introduced their new newsletter at this afternoon’s
luncheon.
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