Violent Crimes See Overall Decrease In 2016; Homicides Up 25 Percent

Statistics released by the Virgin Islands Police Department during a Senate Committee on Homeland Security, Justice and Public Safety hearing in St. Croix on Tuesday, revealed hopeful signs that violent crimes were on the decrease in the territory, even as homicides saw a 25 percent increase in 2016.

According to the chart, seen below, homicides rose from 44 total in 2015 to 55 as of December 13, 2016. Homicide was the only crime on the chart that increased year-over-year. Rape fell from 51 cases in 2015 to 33 in 2016; robbery fell from 154 cases in 2015 to 82 in 2016; felony assaults fell from 647 cases in 2015 to 422 in 2016; and burglary dropped from 896 in 2015 to 632 in 2016.

The data also shows that overall, there were more violent crimes in St. Thomas compared to St. Croix. The same was the case in every category except robbery in 2015, with St. Croix reporting three more robbery cases than St. Thomas that year. St. Thomas is leading in homicides with 30 this year compared to 25 in St. Croix. In 2015, St. Croix reported 13 homicides, compared to St. Thomas’ 16.

In October, Police Commissioner Delroy Richards told The Consortium that the decrease in violence was a result of a number of initiatives both the St. Croix and St. Thomas-St. John police departments had been undertaking.

“We’ve obviously stepped up our initiatives. We’ve got a lot of guys who had guns off the streets, we got a lot of guys incarcerated and we got a lot of guys who’ve left the territory and we’re looking for them, so it’s a combination of different things,” Mr. Richards said. “The police efforts, obviously, I think they’ve been very much aggressive on the streets. I monitor my radio in the night and I turn it on in the morning between 3:00 a.m. – 4:00 a.m. and I can listen to the activities, and the officers are challenging people, and that’s what we need to do. They are being aggressive both here and in St. Thomas and it’s making a difference.”

The commissioner said the V.I.P.D. had also stepped up its outreach efforts as it attempts to steer away the younger generation from violence. “We’ve been more aggressive in doing that, so those various components sometimes change the status quo,” he said.

According to Mr. Richards, police have been persistent in targeting known criminals, and have managed to incarcerate them on other crimes that may not directly involve gun violence, but may be related to assault, robbery or other criminal activities. And he noted that some of the individuals involved in gun violence have themselves died by gun violence.

“We’ve targeted a lot of individuals, some of them have been arrested for other crimes — we have quite a number of individuals that have been incarcerated. Those who have been incarcerated have remained there and we have others who are deceased, and some of those deceased are individuals who were involved in previous shootings before,” the police commissioner said.

Even criminals who have left the islands are not safe, especially those suspected to be involved in homicide cases. The commissioner said police are pursuing suspects in multiple states on the U.S. mainland, with three teams made up of six detectives leading the charge.

“It’s a lot of different things,” Mr. Richards said.

But the commissioner admitted that there’s difficulty in predicting the number of homicides that may occur in any given year. Mr. Richards said he’s seen some crime statistics going back to 2005, “and I’m seeing homicides go up to as much as 50-something, so this year is not the record as people are saying; we’ve had these numbers really high, and it stays steady for some reason. It’s like 50-something one year and then it comes down to about 40-something homicides and it stays that way for several years and then one year it drops down to about 30-something. It fluctuates, but we are not at the highest that we’ve  ever been.”

Even so, the commissioner said police efforts will continue, and he commended the men and women in the force for their ardent work to quell crime.

During Tuesday’s hearing, St. Croix Police Chief Winsbut McFarland, who represented Mr. Richards, encouraged residents to enjoy themselves during the season, as police presence will be notable.

“Rest assured that despite our many challenges, we will do all we can in this [St. Croix] district to ensure the safety of our community during the holiday season,” Chief McFarland said. “So I want to encourage the public to come out and enjoy yourselves. We will be out there ensuring your safety.”

Feature Image: Scene of a shooting incident in September in downtown Christiansted. (Credit: VIC)