From left: Department Head of the Basic Police Care of Bonaire, Saba, and St. Eustatius Rank Chief Inspector Edwin van der Giessen; Inspector Chief of Basic Police Care St. Eustatius, Robelto Hodge, Korps Police Caribbean Netherlands Communication advisor Miluska Hansen and Deputy Chief Commissioner Ronald Zwarter.
St. EUSTATIUS--Violent crimes in St. Eustatius decreased overall by 10 per cent while traffic accidents went up by 56 per cent last year compared to the year prior, according to the 2019 crime and traffic figures released by the St. Eustatius police on Friday.
According to the figures, abuse with a weapon fell by 33.3 per cent. However, domestic violence went up from 8 incidents in 2018 to 14 incidents in 2019.
Violent crimes plummeted from 70 in 2018, to 63 in 2019. No robberies were reported at or in homes compared to two reports in 2018. No robberies were reported at or in businesses in 2019, while one was reported in 2018. No street robberies/muggings were reported in 2019 or 2018.
The number of property crimes went up from 45 in 2018 to 57 in 2019. Property crimes for 2019 saw home burglaries, decrease by 5 incidents when compared to 2018. There were no burglaries at accommodations in 2018 and also 2019. Burglaries in companies remained the same – 7 in 2019 and 2018, while the total number of general thefts went down from 18 in 2018 to 17 in 2019.
There was one report of a theft of motorized vehicle consisting of either a car/bus/truck in 2019, while none occurred in 2018. Theft of scooter/ motorcycles/quads remained the same with 2 occurring in both 2019 and 2018. There were thefts from cars at diving sites.
There were no reports of thefts of vehicles in 2019. One occurred in 2018.
Misappropriation figure remained the same with one crime being recorded in 2019 and 2018.
Destruction of property more than a doubled with 25 incidents occurring in 2019 compared to 11 the year prior.
A month-by-month breakdown of property crimes shows 10 incidents in September 9 in December, eight in August, five in June, four each in January, March, May and July, two each in February, April and October and 3 in November.
The number of abuse cases reported increased by one from 14 in 2018 to 15 in 2019. The number of assaults with a weapon decreased from 12 in 2018 to 7 in 2019, while the number of threats committed decreased from 25 in 2018 to 23 in 2019.
Domestic violence incidents increased from 8 reported in 2018 to 14 in 2019. There were no homicides committed in 2018 and 2019. There were also no attempted homicides in 2019, but three were reported the year prior.
Public violence also decreased from 3 reports in 2018 to 2 in 2019. There were no human trafficking incidents reported for 2018 and 2019. Moral figures remained the same with two incidents reported in 2018 and also in 2019.
The traffic figures showed that the number of collisions with material damage went up by 23 incidents, which made for a total increase of 56 per cent in total traffic accidents for the year 2019.
Overall, the total number of traffic accidents increased from the previous year from 41 incidents in 2018 to 64 incidents in 2019. In 2018, there were 37 collisions with material damage compared to 55 accidents in 2019.
Collisions with injuries remained the same with nine incidents occurring in 2018 and in 2019.
A monthly breakdown showed that the majority of accidents occurred in March – 12, while seven accidents per month occurred in April, May, and August.
July and September saw six accidents occurring each month, while five occurred in January and four in October, three each in June and November and two each in December and February.
Present at the presentation of the figures to the press were Department Head of the Basic Police Care of Bonaire, Saba and St. Eustatius Rank Chief Inspector Edwin van der Giessen; Inspector Chief of Basic Police Care St. Eustatius Robelto Hodge; KPCN Communication advisor Miluska Hansen and Deputy Chief Commissioner Ronald Zwarter.
