This week, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Luke Defreitas, who oversees the Central Division, reported a significant decline in crime figures in Saint Lucia.
“We have solved six of the 18 homicides [for the year], and we are well on the way to solving a few more. Many of these homicides, of course, because of the circumstances… we’ve had to take a multi-agency approach in terms of the investigations. Therefore, it means we have to be working with the pace of some of our partner agencies in bringing some of these homicides to [a] resolve,” ACP Defreitas told reporters.
Around the same time last year, Saint Lucia had recorded 31 homicides, the ACP said.
The Royal Saint Lucia Police Force (RSLPF) is using a multipronged approach, and “we want to continue to let the public know that these operations will continue with sustained intensity,” he stated.
“These are statistics from the Central Division. We have put together 221 operations; these include road checks as well as targeted operations. Thus far for the year, a total of 160 vehicles have been impounded, 43 of them being motorcycles, and these are for various breaches of our traffic laws. We’ve issued 5246 traffic tickets [for the year], again, for various breaches under our road traffic regulations,” the ACP noted.
He said the RSLPF aims to maintain a safe environment for all.
“At this point, we have seen a drastic reduction in our overall crime numbers, and it’s a trend that has continued from January to now. We are hoping that with our sustained operations, we continue to bring these figures down. Of course, like the Commissioner indicated, there are challenges, and sometimes, despite our best efforts, incidents do occur. However, I think we are on top of many of them, and we are hoping that we can sustain this moving forward,” ACP Defreitas said.