Tue, 2010-10-26

Commissioner of Police Michael DeSilva - Good morning: I have called this press conference today to report on Bermuda’s crime statistics for the third quarter of 2010 which is the period between 1st July and 30th September. [Please see the complete document].

Firearm Incidents

20 confirmed firearms incidents were reported in the 3rd quarter, 1 of which resulted in a fatal shooting (Raymond Troy Rawlins – 9th August) and 11 of which resulted in shooting injuries. The total for the year now stands at:

o       Confirmed incidents:   54

o       Fatal shootings:           7

o       Injury shootings:         25

The Serious Crime Unit now has the following active and open cases:

o       17 murder investigations (11 since May 2009)

o       33 attempted murder investigations

• Progress to date:

o       Five trials this year: five convictions

§        1 attempted murder

§        4 other firearms offences

o       18 persons now charged before the Court that account for 11 pending trials:

§        5 charged with murder

§        7 charged with attempted murder

§        6 charged with other firearms offences

The long term trend for firearms is still increasing at a substantial rate, but so is the conviction and detection rate. It is important that I take this opportunity to sincerely thank the public for their continuing and increasing assistance, to recognise the courage of those victims and witnesses that are taking the stand in Court, and to encourage the rest of the people of Bermuda to do their part in providing the information that is needed to bring the remaining offenders to justice.

On the broader perspective of the statistical report, starting with the 4 main categories:

1.   Total Crime

• The 3rd quarter total number of reported crimes has risen by 191 offences to 1,258 – but it must be remembered that it is being compared with Q2 which was the lowest in 5 years.
• This is not necessarily alarming: while the quarter is slightly higher than average for the last 12 months, longer term it is lower than average for the last 5 years.
• In terms of a year-to-year comparison, Total Crime is down by 13% from 2009.
• The long term trend of Total Crime in Bermuda can be described as stable.

2.   Crimes Against the Person

(Main categories: Homicide; Assault; Robbery)

• The second quarter report of 195 marks a 10% reduction over last quarter and the number is the lowest since March 2009.
• The long term trend has stopped rising and is now stable.
• The decrease is mainly attributed to Robberies (from 28 to 19) and Sexual Assaults (from 17 to 4).

3.   Crimes Against Property

(Main categories: Burglary; Vehicle & Property theft; Fraud)

• This category has reversed its downward trend with a sudden upward spike: an additional 215 offences were reported over the last quarter for a total of 832.
• This is a significant increase over the last quarter, but it is still below the average of the last 5 years.
• Attributed to increases across the board of residential burglary; criminal damage; vehicle theft; property theft and fraud.

4.   Crimes Against the Community

(Main categories: generally where there is no specific victim – Firearms; Weapons; Public Disorder)

• This category is down by 2 incidents from last quarter – 231 – but the long term trend is still increasing.
• Reductions in antisocial behaviour and disorder offences were offset by an increase of 11 firearms offences over the last quarter.

5.   Drug Enforcement Activity

• Drug enforcement activity fell slightly by 39 offences over last quarter.
• To put that into perspective, Q3 is still the 2nd highest in terms of drug seizures in the last 5 years, and is nearly 120% higher than the average for 2009.

The figure includes:

o       28 seizures at the Ports of Entry by the staff of the Customs Department, totalling $454K

o       2 seizures made by overseas law enforcement agencies where the drugs were destined for Bermuda , totalling $1.85M.

o       210 local street seizures, totalling $78K.

Nearly $2.4M worth of drugs were seized in Q3, the bulk of which is represented by cannabis; brining the year-to-date total confiscations by the police and customs to about $8.3M worth of drugs.

6.   Other Enforcement Activity

Stop & Search (primarily criminal code, PACE & MDA powers, primarily)

o       1,867 people were searched in the 3rd quarter; about 140 a week

o       Highest record to date

o       More than doubled in the last year

Arrests

o       1,256 people were arrested this quarter, or about 100 arrests each week

o       This quarterly figure has been consistently high for the last 15 months

o       Includes the arrests of 199 females and 84 juveniles

o       The top 5 reasons for arrest:

§        Court Warrant (50%)

§        Drugs

§        Impaired driving

§        Antisocial behaviour

§        Property theft

o       25% of all arrests involve recidivists: 134 people were arrested more than once in the same 3 month period.

o       I want to assure the public that stop, search and arrest numbers are not quotas: they are good indications of higher police presence on the street. In order for my officers to conduct searches and make arrests, they have to be out on patrol in the first place. For those people that still tell me they don’t see enough police officers on the street, there are about 8 ½ thousand people so far this year that would disagree.

Traffic Enforcement

o       A 38% reduction from last quarter is attributed to a significant drop in parking tickets (from 10,000 to 5,300).

o       Traffic offences are relatively unchanged at 2,762 or about 200 per week.

Road Traffic Collisions

o       There was 1 fatal collision recorded in the 3rd quarter: this brings this tragic total to 7 this year.

o       The long term trend of traffic collisions is, however, still decreasing and this quarter is down by 8%.

o       To add some perspective to this: the 3rd quarter total is 575; the average in April 2008 was 582; and the average for April 2006 was 740 collisions per quarter.

Calls for Service

o       Q3 recorded over 10,000 calls for service.

o       This year we have averaged over 100 calls per day.

o       For some perspective, the Cayman Islands has a population 25% smaller than Bermuda , but the local police receive 50% fewer calls than we do.

o       While the BPS is moving towards a proactive style of policing, there is still very much a response expectation amongst the Bermuda public.

o       I want to encourage the public that all calls are important, but we have to prioritise our response to the incidents and the locations that need us the most.

Closing Perspective

• Gun crime continues to dominate the report with an alarming and increasing rate, and there is still more work to be done across the community.
• Most other crime categories are stable.
• Public assistance is on the rise – more cases are coming before the Courts; the 3rd quarter recorded 4 more convictions and 9 more charges laid before the Court.
• Police enforcement across drugs, searches and arrests continues to set all time record highs.
• Traffic collisions continue to stabilise at a comparatively lower rate than recent years.
• Calls for Service are extremely high and place a huge response burden on our resources.

• More Press Releases Here