PHILIPSBURG:--- The 2014 crime report has been officially released on the orders of Chief of Police Peter de Witte. The crime report came late this year as it appears as though KPSM management wanted to ensure they provide all the figures for the previous years.
The report has detailed information which was compiled from 2010 when De Witte took office to 2014. In the case of capital offences such as murder, and attempted murder there were seven committed in 2010, 18 in 2011, 10 in 2012, three in 2013 and 10 in 2014. When it comes to attempted murder 12 were committed in 2010, 9 in 2011, 11 in 2012 14 in 2013 and 23 in 2014. The data that was gathered over the years show that the amount of murders committed in 2011 decreased dramatically but it also showed that murders committed in 2014 increased from 3 in 2013 to 10 in 2014.
It is clear from the accumulated clear that there was a dramatic increase in attempted murders in 2014 compared to 2010 while the numbers fluctuated in the years in 2011 to 2013.
Other capital offences such as robbery, burglary, auto theft, and auto burglary during the same years fluctuated. As for house robberies 667 were reported in 2010, 519 in 2011, 366 in 2012, 307 in 2013 and 223 in 2014. Burglaries reported in the same periods are 199 in 2010, 128 in 2011, 112 in 2012, 71 in 2013 and 63 in 2014. Robberies committed are 238 reported in 2010, 296 in 2011, 199 in 2012, 160 in 2013 and 150 in 2014. The collected data shows that auto theft reported in 2010 were 235, 215 in 2011, 183 in 2012, 154 in 2013 and 150 in 2014. Theft reported over the four year period are 462 in 2010, 453 in 2011, 429 in 2012, 380 in 2013 and 450 in 2015 while the amount of auto burglaries reported are 286 in 2010, 225 in 2011, 250 in 2012, 258 in 2013 and 140 in 2014.
Sexual offences that were reported based on the data are for rape 08 in 2010, 08 in 2011, 13 in 2012, 07 in 2013 and 14 in 2014, assault 03 reported in 2010, 4 in 2011, 07 in 2012, 0 in 2012, 7 in 2013 and 5 in 2015. Cases of fornication reported are 6 in 2010, 6 in 2011, 4 in 2012, 5 in 2013 and 3 in 2014.
The entire report which is underneath this article includes crimes such as destruction, scam/ swindling, embezzlement, fraud/job embezzlement, arson, traffic accidents, which includes collision, with and without injuries and loss of lives. In 2010 seven persons loss their lives due to accidents, the same amount in 2011 and 2012, five in 2013 and two in 2014.
The police confiscated $100,000 in 2010, $200.000 in 2011, $2,400.000 in 2013 and $400.000 in 2014.
The police Department releases 2014 Crime Figures
The crime figures in this analysis are based on actual figures recorded from January 2014 to December 2014 and compared to the years 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013.
The figures also indicate the number and the type of crimes that have been reported in 2014.
- Property offenses. To our delight we keep seeing decreases in this type of crime. The number of car thefts has fallen by 60% since 2010. The number of burglaries keep falling and regarding the robberies we even see a decrease of 63% compared to the year we started to record the KPSM figures. That's something to be very proud of, which indicates that combating property crime on Sint Maarten has been improving
Homicide. We still remained fortunate not to have reached the level of year 2011 with 18 killings, but the 10 of last year are still 10 too many . What is noteworthy is that 70 % of the cases has now been resolved or there is /are one or more suspects in picture
3. Crimes against the physical integrity. Compared to 2010, such crimes have increased much. Often ill-treatment, which in this case it is about, is due to relational violence. It would be good to do something about it where education and prevention are concerned, but that's mainly for other entities than the police.
4. Sexual abuse. 2014 was a real challenge for the Youth and Morals Unit, because they conducted a few large scale investigations. The difficulty with sexual crimes is always that they are difficult to accurately keep count. Many of these crimes are taking place in the home and the willingness to them report are not great. What we may conclude is, if we look at the larger number of reports regarding rape that has come to us, is that confidence in the police gradually increases and the reluctance slowly decreases. In these figures, we are always very careful, because the number of reports being brought to us is probably the tip of the iceberg.
5. Other offenses. Again, we generally see a decline in reported crimes in our police force, especially if we look at the years 2010 and 2013.
6. Money confiscated. In 20 14 the amount is less than 2013, but still double the amount confiscated in 2012. The high amount is reported in 2013 mainly came from drug- related cases. In 2014, there are not many drug cases investigated by KPSM but more fraud cases. In those cases relatively small amounts were confiscated.
7. Traffic cases: In 2014 we see a clear downward trend. This is about the traffic cases attended in recent years. We see a slight increase over the previous year in the total number of collisions, but the number of serious collisions (with light and severe injury or even fatal) continues to fall. The increase in the total number of collisions includes those that happened at the Prins Bernhard Bridge during the time the traffic lights were not functioning. This was the cause of many collisions involving mostly material damage.
8. Other acts: In the last image it is shown exactly how many "other cases' were investigated in 2014 by the Police Force. This is no data for comparison.
KPSM Police Report--- Official Crime figures for the years 2010 to 2014
Click here to read the entire crime figures over the four year period 2010 to 2015