Holiday says 490 more
crimes reported in 2005
PHILIPSBURG--Police Chief Commissioner Derrick Holiday says crime figures show that police dealt with 490 more cases in 2005 than the 2,411 reported in 2004, with a major increase in thefts, thefts with violence, burglaries in businesses and crimes against women. However, instead of celebrating that the solution ratio for those same reported crimes had increased to 14.62 per cent in 2005 compared to only 6.97 per cent in 2004, Holiday is already finalising plans to have more patrols, as he sees the lack thereof as a major reason for the thefts.
He said with plans nearly finalised to recruit police officers and other interested candidates in Holland to work here, and the hope that government will agree to a new strategy allowing non-Dutch nationals, specifically Surinamese citizens, to work as police officers, he is well on the way to getting 210 police officers by 2007 for his force, which is currently about 120 strong. He added that while it remained difficult to find police, “we must keep openings to have our local boys and girls become policemen and -women.”
Holiday said there had been 25 more thefts with violence in 2005 than the 201 cases reported in 2004. Forty-five per cent of the criminals are Antillean nationals, 34 per cent of whom are indigenous St. Maarteners. The remainder of the criminals are non-Antillean.
He is also very concerned that the records show young men with an average age of 20 being caught in these cases of theft. He said 99.9 per cent of the time they were unemployed, whether or not they are residents. Holiday said a social assessment must be made to find out why there so many active criminals in such a young group.
He said the number of car thefts skyrocketed in 2005, with 119 more cars stolen than in 2004, when 159 cars were reported stolen.
People are also seemingly more willing to do damage to other people’s property, as there were 40 more cases of vandalism in 2005 than the 115 reported in 2004. While threats against a person have increased by 13 cases to 124 in 2005, Holiday says the increase is partly due to more willingness of people to report crimes because of increased fear of being harmed.
Among the statistics of reported threats is the fact that 11 more cases of women being threatened were reported. On the subject of women, he noted with much sadness that there had been significant increases in several areas of attacks on women. Nine cases of rape were reported in 2005, while six were reported in 2004. The number of murders and manslaughter of women increased from one in 2004 to two in 2005, while threats against women increased to 53 from only five reported cases in 2004.
Only four cases of abuse with a weapon were reported in 2004 and that number has taken a huge jump to 32 cases. Even more alarming is the increase in the general abuse of women from eight cases in 2004 to 56 cases in 2005.
Holiday told The Daily Herald, “I think they have been happening in the past, but thankfully we have done a lot to encourage these victims to come to us. These victims now understand more that it is not their fault, so they come forward, and it is good to do so because when you do, at least you can stop that person from doing it to someone else.” He said catching these people was often very easy, as they were generally people who were known to the victim.
He lauded the detective department and its leadership for the excellent work they had done in solving crimes and bringing the solution ratio up by more than seven per cent. “They are doing a very good job. The team is small and they are often working under the pressure of more than one major crime at a time. So to see them bring out numbers such as these shows excellent work,” said Holiday.
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