Murders, robberies and violent burglaries all dropped last year when compared to 2020, just released crime figures are showing.
However, while all the serious crimes are down for 2021, there was a 26 per cent increase in rapes which went from 39 in 2020 to 49 last year.
While Commissioner of Police Richard Boyce said he is heartened by the downward trend, he held off giving an analysis of the statistics which show that there were 5 391 reported crimes in 2021 versus 7 079 in 2020.
Boyce told the Weekend Nation that the Barbados Police Service was in the throes of the General Election and its examination of the 24 per cent reduction in crime statistics would come at the end of it.
In the figures just released by the Barbados Police Service, murders went from 41 to 32 over the previous year, robberies from 193 to 101, aggravated burglaries from 77 to 73 and theft from the person dropped from 98 to 46. The largest decrease was in robberies – a 48 per cent drop and theft from the person, a 53 per cent decrease. (AC)
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