De acuerdo al reporte más reciente del FBI, la criminalidad en PR sigue bajando. A continuación vemos una comparación entre actos delictivos cometidos en los años 2012 y 2014. (FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program) febrero, 2016
Crímenes Violentos
2012 2014
10041 8,368 -16.6%
Asesinato y Homicidio Involuntario
2012 2014
978 681 -30.36%
Violación
2012 2014
32 41 +28.1%
Robo (“Robbery”)
2012 2014
6,298 5,171 -18%
Asalto Agravado
2012 2014
2,733 2475 -17%
Crimen de Propiedad
2012 2014
51,679 45,622 -12%
Robo (“Burglary”)
2012 2014
15,287 12035 -21%
Hurto (“Larceny”)
2012 2014
30,545 28948 -5.2%
Robo de Vehículos
2012 2014
5,847 4639 -21%
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La criminalidad en PR continua bajando y en el 2014 la reducción de homicidios fue dramática con “solo” 681 al terminar el año. Lea el artículo a continuación para obtener más información.
Homicides in PUERTO RICO Show a DRAMATIC DECLINE in 2014
Associated Press By DANICA COTO
January 14, 2015
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The crime wave that marred Puerto Rico’s image in recent years appears to have ebbed, with homicides decreasing and both residents and police adopting new measures to track problems and improve public safety.
The island of 3.7 million people had 681 homicides in 2014, the lowest number in nearly 15 years and a drop of 40 percent since murders reached a record high of 1,164 three years ago. Violent crime overall fell 17 percent over the same period.
Credit for the decline goes to a number of factors, from increased efforts to prevent crime to a broader trend of declining violence across the United States and the Caribbean.
Luis Romero, whose son was fatally stabbed during a holdup in 2011, is among the Puerto Ricans who have helped turn the tide. Following the death of his 20-year-old son, Romero used his skills as the owner of a telecommunications services company to create a mobile app that allows users to anonymously report suspected crimes to police. So far, it’s been downloaded more than 40,000 times and has been used to send in more than 6,800 tips.
“The people have said enough is enough,” Romero said. “Puerto Rico got fed up with the level of crime.”
2011 was seen by many as a low point for Puerto Rico. Not only did homicides peak, but the FBI expanded its involvement in the U.S. territory after a Justice Department report found widespread problems in the island’s police force, including corruption, illegal killings and civil rights violations.
Seeking to crack down on the most serious crimes, the FBI and other federal agencies took charge of cases that involved armed suspects with previous criminal records. Suspects detained by federal agents are subject to being held without bond, and the system has a 97 percent conviction rate.
The FBI also expanded its authority in handling carjacking cases, a key to deterring criminals from stealing cars to commit other crimes. The bureau and other federal agencies also flew in personnel from the U.S. mainland to help bring Puerto Rico’s crime wave under control.
As a result, the island has experienced a “dramatic” improvement in public safety since 2011, said Carlos Cases, the FBI special agent in charge for the island.
“The streets of Puerto Rico at the time, especially in the San Juan metropolitan area, were essentially no man’s land,” he said.
Use of the crime-tip mobile app, led by an anti-crime organization known as “Basta Ya PR” meaning “Enough is enough, Puerto Rico,” has been part of the change.
The app allows people to easily alert police to suspected crimes such as assault, robbery, domestic violence and child abuse.
“The cooperation of citizens has been key in helping us solve murders and seize weapons,” said Lt. Ricardo Haddock, sub director of criminal investigations in the north municipality of Carolina. “Everything’s so much faster with technology now. People are cooperating more than ever.”
For its part, the Puerto Rico Police Department last year began using a system that tracks the locations of reported gunfire in greater San Juan in order to decide where to assign daily patrols.
Puerto Rico’s drop in crime comes amid a long-term trend of declining rates of violent crime across the region. In Jamaica, killings in 2014 were the lowest in 11 years and down roughly 40 percent compared with a record 1,680 in 2009. Trinidad and Tobago saw a 27 percent drop in killings from the 2008 high of 547. And in the Dominican Republic, there were fewer than 2,000 killings in each of the past two years for the first time in more than a decade.
Still, parts of the Caribbean remain violent as a drug-trafficking corridor awash in weapons, often smuggled out of the United States. Even in places like Puerto Rico and Jamaica where the numbers are falling, much of the crime involves gang battles or people seeking cash or valuables to feed a drug habit, like the 15-year-old mugger who attacked Romero’s son.
Romero said more remains to be done. Puerto Rico should reduce overall violent crime by 70 percent and aim for no more than 582 killings for 2016, half of that reported in 2011. He plans to continue working with police to make the island safer.
“When your son has been killed, it’s hard to talk about the subject constantly,” he said. “But it has to be done.”
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Claudia Balthazar (staff@latinpost.com)First Posted: Nov 07, 2014 wrote:
Other crime rates have dropped in the U.S. commonwealth, as well. Robbery is down by 12.6 percent, aggravated assaults by 83 percent and auto thefts by 16.7 percent.
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Crime Trends
According to the FBI Annual Report, violent crime in 2012 increased less than 1% from the 2011 estimates. Below are the current crime trends for Puerto Rico:
Crime 2011 2012 %
Violent Crime 10,540 10,041 -4.7
Murder and Manslaughter 1,136 978 -13.9
Forcible Rape 45 32 -28.9
Robbery 6, 465 6,298 -2.6
Aggravated Assault 2,894 2,733 -5.6
Property Crime 51,717 51,679 -0.1
Burglary 16,591 15,287 -7.9
Larceny-Theft 29,273 30,545 4.3
Motor Vehicle Theft 5,853 5,847 -0.1
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reports http://www.irr.com/bja-state-fact-sheets/State/PR
