By Robert A Emmanuel
Police Commissioner Atlee Rodney revealed that 2023 saw 3,425 crimes reported—an eight percent increase on the 3,166 incidents reported in 2022.
Speaking at the weekly post-Cabinet press conference, the police boss said that last year was a highly active year for officers, due to both the general election and by-election along with a number of other activities.
According to Commissioner Rodney, the police conducted an increased number of patrols and stop and search operations, and executed more search warrants last year.
“There was a slight increase in the number of criminal reports that we had to respond to, compared to 2022; what we also noticed was that we had a large number of cases solved this year—some from previous years,” he said, although he could not provide statistics on the latter when asked.
With regards to traffic collisions, the police saw 2,414 cases in 2023 with 10 fatal accidents, compared to 2022 which saw 2,379 collisions with 11 fatalities.
Last week, Corporal Brendan Sutherland, of the police Traffic Department, revealed there had been at least 75 traffic collisions already this year.
Meanwhile, the fire department saw a significant increase in house fires with 88 reported and responded to, compared to 46 house fires in 2022.
Commissioner Rodney also noted that more firearm recoveries had occurred last year with 70 firearms seized by police officers; 66 were lethal weapons and four were imitations.
This was the largest amount ever recovered by the police in a calendar year according to Commissioner Rodney and marked a 95 percent increase on 2022 which saw 36 firearms seized.
“So, the increase in the patrols, execution of search warrants, stop and search, and information coming from the public, it greatly assisted us in removing a number of firearms from the public streets,” Commissioner Rodney said as he thanked the public for their assistance.
Meanwhile, petty crimes continue to occupy most of the police’s time. Larceny accounted for 33 percent of all crimes in Antigua and Barbuda. All items reported stolen to the police—regardless of value—were recorded as part of the petty crime stats.
The second most prevalent crime was malicious damage—accounting for 22 percent of the overall numbers. Commissioner Rodney said such incidents “include domestic cases where persons are smashing items in a household setting and also persons damaging other persons’ vehicles to steal items from them”.
Robberies make up just three percent of the overall crime statistics with 119 cases reported last year. But the Commissioner said they were a source of angst as “robberies are normally traumatic”.
Another concern for the police chief was the number of people under the age of 18 arrested last year.
Twenty persons were arrested for crimes ranging from threatening language to murder. Young people also made up a significant number of crime victims with 139 cases affecting youngsters aged 10 to 25 (69 males and 70 females).
Additionally, a large amount of young people between the ages of 14 and 25 were arrested (246), according to Police Commissioner Rodney.
Last year, Roudi Shmaly, 25, became the country’s first homicide victim after being killed during an armed robbery in May 2023, apparently by two youths. An 18-year-old and 23-year-old were arrested in connection with the incident.
“We are very much concerned with what is happening when it comes to young persons and we are committed to work with stakeholders to address the problems,” Rodney said.
The police commissioner noted that the force arrested 850 persons for various offences last year —746 men and 104 women. Of those, repeat offenders accounted for 376 arrests—44 percent of the total.
“It shows that there is a grouping of persons that they would be arrested, taken before the court, convicted, serve their time or pay their fine and go right back and commit crimes similar for what they were convicted for,” Rodney said.
He added that there is work to be done to help to reform individuals.
Moving on to the subject of revenue collection by the police, Rodney said the force recorded a total of EC$1,410,300 in 2023 – $363,025 for police records and $92,700 for fingerprint services, while the Traffic Department collected $954,575 (which includes ticket collection and other services).