FOI reveals police clear up rate is falling

| 15/07/2011

(CNS): According to statistics revealed in a Freedom of Information request, the percentage of crime solved by the police is getting worse as the number of crimes increase. Despite there being less crimes reported, in total in 2008 the police solved a greater percentage of those crimes than they did in 2010. The applicant, who showed the results to CNS, asked the police how many crimes in total were committed in 2008, 2009 and 2010 and how many of them were detected – in other words charges were brought against the perpetrators or the police determined that no crime had been committed. The statistics supplied for the FOI differed, however, from those given in the recently published compendium of statistics.

In response to the FOI request, the applicant was told that the in 2008 there were 2,596 crimes committed and the police cleared up 1,955 of them, in 2009 the police received reports of 2,951 crimes with 1,893 of those detected, and then in 2010 the applicant was told 3,136 crimes were committed and the police cleared up 1,886. The FOI request states that police had a 76% clearance rate in 2008 and around a 64% clearance the year after, falling to around 60% in 2010.

However, according to the ESO figures, police dealt with 3,124 crimes in 2010 and only cleared up 30% or 952 of those crimes. In 2008 the compendium says there were 2,591 with the clear up number of 1,927 and a rate of 74% – similar to that given in the FOI request answer. In 2009 the ESO states that 2,967 but only 1,833 were actually solved giving a clearance rate of 62%, which is lower than the 64% rate given by the police information manager.

Over the five years that the ESO measured detection rates, from 2006 to 2010 inclusive, 15,596 crimes were committed in the Cayman Islands and 9,792 have been solved, giving the RCIPS an overall average success rate of more than 62%.

The compendium also reveals in the types of crimes identified. In 2010 police were best at solving burglaries and common assaults.

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  1. Goose is my RIO says:

    Actuallt detected means the offender is found guilty at court or it is a snactioned detection, such as a caution or a 'TIC' taken into consideration with other crimes or admitted prior to arrest… such as in an interview for another offence..

    wow, you actually got FOI information out of the RCIP, damn, good work

     

  2. a nah no mouse says:

    No surprise with this….except for those busy with twisting stats to provide a spin in an effort to fool people into thinking the Police are "effective"….or "intelligently aggressive"……yeah, right!

  3. Anonymous says:

    Ummm… DUH!

  4. Anon says:

    When they broke into my house and the police did their "so called investigations" and told that us if "we" find out anything let them know. As this situation shocked us and we felt so violated, we did not want anyone else to go through the same problem. We went around questioning our neighbours and found out that one of them saw two suspicious young guys walking around the area before the break in. We called the police to let them know that our neighbour could give them a description of these young men. This was a break in the case as there were a series of break-ins in the area and we were the 5th house in a 2 dayperiod. Even after numerous calls to the police for updates, up until NOW the police have not questioned my neighbour!!! I am NOT SURPRISED about this information. I do not want to think that the police just didn't care to follow up on this lead. 

     

    Is it that they don't have enough staff to follow up on crimes? 

  5. Anonymous says:

    Disraeli said:  "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."  The RCIPS must be very careful here.  If they manipulate the statistics just to look good they are likely to loose a great deal of credibility in the public's eyes.  You can't do this in the age of FOI.

    • Pending says:

      So instead of the headline " Crime is Down", what they should have said was….we cant solve them.

    • Anonymous says:

      Now who is surprised by this?? (roll eyes)

  6. Dred says:

    Stats are a funny thing. You can make them say almost anything you want them to say.

    Again I say….

     

    RESULTS!!!

     

    The proof is in the pudding.

  7. Anonymous says:

    Not surprise anon 21:11 same people incharge doing the same old tired strategy they were leaving a 5:00pm then it went to 8pm and left uniform to deal with the crap, the only saving grace back then you had some real capable dudes from the old DTF marine unit who had their shit together and assisted everybody including the other districts police stations. Its interesting to see they have return with that it was a complete failure then but i am not suprise when you see who is incharge Specialist!!!!!

  8. Anonymous says:

    So crime is down according the police but they can’t solve these crimes Good Job Mr. Baines, nice to see you are trying to mislead us with your stats, in fact have you thought that more persons are not reporting these crime as they don’t trust the police, I’m sure drug crimes are down, why would this be, maybe because the size of the drug squad is half the size as it was back years ago. Have you looked at the CID unit, they go home at 11pm every night, unless they are called out, have you looked at how many officers are on the streets now compared to the past.

     What I would really like to know is not how many crimes have been solved but how many persons have been convicted, it’s easy to say “solved”. Can anyone provide us with conviction stats? Let’s have the truth please.

    Oh forgot another crime tonight, a stabbing, great, time to sleep and read CNS tomorrow, and unfortunatley read the bad news.

  9. Anonymous says:

    Really???!!!