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.
1. 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.
2. 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.
