Minister for Policing Ioane Naivalurua has raised alarm on the reports received by Police on a daily basis with 375 reports recorded over the last 24 hours compared to 304 for the same period last year.
While responding to a question from Opposition MP Shalen Kumar on the Ministry’s plan to address the rise in robberies, house break-ins and street violence, Naivalurua says the increase has to do with the increase in police activities, especially related to the uprooting of drugs.
The Minister says as a matter of comparison, they received 4,703 reports for this month compared to 5,202 for the same period last year.
Naivalurua further says in the last three months, cases for aggravated burglary recorded a total of 225 cases, and last month recorded a decrease with 159 cases.
He adds for aggravated robbery, 51 cases were recorded in December 2024, it decreased to 36 cases in January and then decreased further to 35 last month.
The Minister says however, there were no cases of street violence reported in the last three months, according to the Crimes Act 2009, although it mentions assault as a crime that can be reported.
He also says most of these perpetrators are employed individuals that account for more than half of all perpetrators, with farmers representing the second largest group of 3.5 percent.
Naivalurua assured Parliament and the people of Fiji that this government is committed to ensuring the safety and security of our people.
He says he and the Commissioner of Police meet on a weekly basis to review the operations on a weekly basis, then discuss a better way of moving forward, both at the policy level and also at the operational level.
Naivalurua says the Police are adopting a targeted approach and intelligence-led operations in identifying the crime red spot zones.
He says they know the red spot zones all over Fiji, and the focus of police operations at this point in time is on those red spot zones.
He further says there is a task force deployed in Kadavu to address the issue of drugs, and likewise also in Vanua Levu but it doesn't mean that Kadavu and Vanua Levu are the real red spots.
The Minister says he believes that the Municipal Council has a greater role to play in being the custodians of the municipalities, and if they could do that and improve that, it would really take away a bit of load from the Fiji Police Force, to be the custodians of their municipal area of responsibility.
Naivalurua says he does not know what the law says on this, but believes if they can work on that, it will improve the work and lessen the load on the police.
He says the Fiji Police are optimizing CCTV technology and surveillance purposes to extract concrete evidence like offenders, vehicles and their movements, locations of suspected activities and other key evidence that can lead to apprehension.
He adds this is the focus of the police at this point is to disrupt, destabilize, and defeat these criminal activities.
The Minister says if they are able to do that, they can dominate those areas where the criminals have taken hold.
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