Despite a murder rate that is on par with the preceding year, the police force yesterday reported a 1% drop in serious crimes up to the end of last month.
The overall decrease corresponds with a decrease in the total number of reports of serious crimes, including murder, robbery, break and enter and larceny, burglary, rape and kidnapping, which were recorded from January 1 to May 31, 2013. During that time there were 1604 reports compared to 1621 reports for the same period last year.
In a statement yesterday, police said 51 murders had been recorded for the year, which is identical to the number for the same period in 2012.
Of the 51 murders this year, 23 were of the disorderly type, nine were committed during armed robberies, one was execution-type, and four were domestic related, while the other 14 are so far undetermined, police said.
In addition, police also reported an overall decrease of 14% in armed robberies, with 372 reports compared to 432 for the same period in 2012. The statistics indicate a decrease of 11% in the number of armed robberies involving the use of firearms and a 19% decrease in armed robberies where instruments other than firearms were used by the perpetrators.
