RSIPF reports an increase in crime incidences in 2020

The total number of criminal incidences reported to the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) so far has shown an increase of 235 cases over the number of incidences reported during last year 2019.

Last year 8,083 cases were reported to the RSIPF while so far this year 8,318 has been reported to police. Solomon Islands has an estimated population of 800,000 people.

These are all the incidences reported through HRC here at the Rove Police Headquarters from Honiara City and all the other provinces. Any incident that was not reported through HRC is not recorded.

Commissioner Mostyn Mangau says, “The figures for 2020 will continue to change as the RSIPF Statistics Unit is yet to complete the data backlog for this year. The final compilation of the crime statistics will be revealed in the 2020 annual report. However, some of the drivers of crimes were so far associated with human behaviour and character, alcohol and possible drug (marijuana) use, traffic offences and land and family disputes.”

“RSIPF believes that the increase in crime this year indicates more people are coming forward to report crime to police as a result of the community policing strategy that has been implemented in communities throughout Solomon Islands.”

The crime statistics show there has been a decrease in disturbance and disorderly incidences this year compared to last year. During 2019, RSIPF recorded 1,914 cases and so far this year 1,678 cases have been recorded.

There was an increase of traffic offences this year compared to last year 2019. RSIPF recorded 1,175 cases in 2019 and 1,231 so far this year. There was an increase in the incidents of assault with 956 cases reported compared to 828 cases last year.