Police Commissioner Sitiveni Qiliho says overall crime from the 19th of March to the 14th of April since the confirmation of Fiji’s first COVID-19 case has recorded a 36% increase largely due to the high number of arrests made for COVID-19 restriction breaches.
Qiliho says during this period 650 cases of reports of failure to comply with orders were recorded whereby 465 cases were for curfew breach, 138 cases of social gathering breach, 32 for lockdown breach and 15 cases were for isolation and quarantine breach.
He says the Western Division recorded 255 cases, Southern Division recorded 223 cases, Eastern Division with 125 cases, Northern Division recorded 24 cases and the Central Division recorded 23 cases.
Qiliho says of the 138 cases of social gathering breach, 60 cases were from gathering for the purpose of consuming liquor, 43 cases of yaqona drinking, 28 cases of general gathering, 5 cases of sporting activities, and one case each of gathering for religious purpose and gathering for wedding purpose.
He says of the 650 cases 1,437 accused persons were charged.
Qiliho says without the failure to comply with order cases there would have been a 13% decrease in the overall crime statistics, and based on the Key Performance Indicators of reducing overall Crime Rate by 10% the decrease of 13% would have meant achieving the target.
He says another increase in reported crimes was recorded for the number of illicit drugs cases which registered a 42% increase with 91 cases reported compared to 64 for the same period last year.
Qiliho says a reduction in serious crime of 17% was recorded, crimes against women recorded a 14% reduction, while crimes against children recorded a 44% reduction.
He also highlighted that domestic violence recorded a decrease of 12% from the 19th of March to the 14th of April.
Qiliho says it is interesting to note that when after the nationwide curfew came into force a slight increase was recorded within domestic settings.
He says further analysis of the reduction of domestic violence cases against women revealed that 96% were assault-related offences and 4% were sexual offences.
Qiliho says domestic violence cases against children recorded a 9% decrease whereby 10 cases were reported compared to 11 for the same period last year.
He says 40% of the reported cases were sexual assault while 60% were physical assault.
Qiliho says all perpetrators, in this case, were male and the offences took place in a domestic setting.
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