Crimes down by 2,000 in a year

Crime reported to the police last year dropped by 1,988 cases, nearly 11 per cent, compared to 2005, latest crime statistics show.

General theft, which accounts for by far the biggest proportion of crime, was down by 1,233 reported cases, just under 11 per cent. The crime of "damage" fell from 3,611 to 2,838 and homicides from three to nil.

Other crimes remained roughly on the same level with the exception of "violence against public officers" which went up from 93 to 135 and sexual offences, from 68 to 89.

The crime figures were obtained from the police after statistics were issued by the National Statistics Office recently showing that crime had gone up by 25 per cent between 1998 and 2005.

The NSO figures were published in the demographic review for 2005 and show an almost constant increase in general crime, from 14,793 crimes committed in 1998 to 18,500 in 2005.

Crime figures going back to 1993 show there was a dip between 1993 and 1994, but criminality soon reared its ugly head again and increased each year to more than double by 2002. It kept rising to an all-time high of 18,266 in 2005.

But statistics compiled by the police show a positive turn - general reported crime last year went back down to a level below that of five years ago. In all there were 16,278 crime reports filed last year compared to 18,266 in 2005.

Reported theft, for instance, went down from 11,238 to 10,005. This translates to 27 cases a day, down from 31 the previous year.

Theft of vehicles has more than halved over the past 10 years, while thefts from vehicles, residences, bars, beaches and retail outlets have all gone down over the past year.

Police Commissioner John Rizzo said the police classified crime under different categories. Each reported incident is logged, hence a theft of something of little value and a theft of thousands of liri are both recorded as cases of theft.

"A number of cases which were locally recorded are ignored in official statistics by other police forces around the world. But we have retained the system where even petty crime forms part of our statistics, hence the crime rate seems to be high," he said.

Thankfully, by comparison, serious crime is not very high, he said. In certain crimes, such as drug trafficking, police successes in finding drugs also contributes to pushing the crime figure higher.

Mr Rizzo said this did not mean the police took any case lightly.

"On the contrary. Theft, especially theft from residences, is taken very seriously. Even theft of small amounts of money can be serious, such as bag snatching, as victims are often dragged and seriously injured when bags are snatched from moving vehicles or when elderly people are manhandled to get them to give up their bag, purse or jewellery."

Cases of bag snatching have been on the decline since 2004, when 205 cases were reported. A total of 194 cases were reported in 2005 and 160 last year.

Some types of crime have been introduced to Malta relatively recently and have seen increases. These include pick pocketing: From 145 cases in 1998, this type of crime shot up to 744 in 2004 and dipped to 545 last year, but is still three times what it was 10 years ago.

"Cases of pick pocketing are worrying because they create a lot of uncertainty. There were instances when we received up to 17 reports in a morning from a particular locality, usually from crowded places. Most solved cases involved gypsies from eastern European countries."

Mr Rizzo said he believed a lot of crime could be prevented by awareness. People can be a little more vigilant and guard bags and valuables.

He said he wanted to have a meeting with the NSO to discuss how crime statistics are compiled because the NSO seemed to lump too many things together while the police go for more segregation.

"I am glad to note crime is decreasing. One can never lose sight of the objective to deter crime as much as possible," Mr Rizzo said.

"I would like to think that the reorganisation in the police force contributed to the drop in crime. We have changed shifts to have more police on the beat.

"We are also recognising police efforts by awarding certificates of merit and giving two days off to those performing outstanding acts. Forty-five policemen were given such awards recently.

"We are also giving a shield to that police district which registers the highest drop in crime rate. Hamrun won the shield for the first time this year. A drop of 22 per cent was registered there," Mr Rizzo said.

"I would like to think that the decline is partly due to the fact that policemen performed better and prevented crime. There is no way to calculate how much crime has been prevented.

"The challenge now is to structure training for the police. Mobile squad police are the first to undergo such training. It is planned that each policeman will undergo eight hours of training a month at the police academy. Training will be across the board from the use of weapons to physical training to law.

"Police will also be equipped with pepper spray and trained in its use. There will be 60 policemen training at the academy every week. I think that in the long-term, this will make a difference.

"Experience has also shown that a lot of police effort went down the drain when people arraigned on serious crime were granted bail on arraignment and in those instances when sentences did not fit the crime.

"When people are remanded in custody, there is a drop in crime. When they are released, or when people are released from prison after serving their sentence, we notice that crime starts to soar again.

"We need to show that we mean business, especially when dealing with serious crime and repeat offenders," Mr Rizzo said.

"Thanks to recent changes in the criminal code, when we feel people who should have been remanded in custody have been granted bail, we are filing appeals and in many of these cases, our appeals are upheld.

"Time will tell whether these deterrents will have the desired effect of further cutting crime," Mr Rizzo said.