trend downwards, Shadow Labour and Home Affairs Minister Alex Scott claimed yesterday.

The Progressive Labour Party spokesman on law and order was speaking after Police figures for the first three months of this year showed crime figures -- especially for break-ins and burglaries -- up almost 16 percent on the previous year.

Mr. Scott said crime was up by an average of 70 percent in some of the sub-categories analysed by the PLP.

And Mr. Scott claimed Police surveillance and capture of so-called career criminals appeared to be inadequate.

Mr. Scott said: "It is extraordinary to have it alleged in the statement issued by the Police that a number of career criminals have been released from prison after serving their sentence and others who are caught and arrested are put back out on the streets in a short amount of time either on bail or on licence and continue their criminal activity.

"This statement is made with such certainty by the Police that one can only conclude that either the Police methods of surveillance are proving to be inadequate and thus these `career criminals' are committing these alleged acts and going undetected or the police, while being able to monitor this illegal activity, are for some unexplainable reason unable to deter or apprehend these felons.'' Mr. Scott said the Police crime figures raised several concerns -- and added that he would be raising these concerns in the next session of the House of Assembly, which starts next month.

He explained he wanted to know how many crooks had been tagged career criminals.

"If they are known, what happened to the Coxall strategy of community policing -- is it being used with effect against these career criminals,'' asked Mr. Scott.

He also criticised the absence of any figures relating to drugs offences in the quarterly report -- which he said Police had claimed was responsible for 90 percent of criminal activity on the Island.

Mr. Scott said the Progressive Labour Party's own crime report showed that in 1994 there were 414 recorded crimes and 226 convictions in relation to drugs offences.

And he challenged Government to issue the corresponding figures for 1995, 1996 and 1997.

The Police quarterly figures showed assaults on Police doubled, while sex offences against the young and burglaries and break-ins also went up.

There were at total of 756 offences in the period compared to 654 for the first three months of 1996.

A total of sixteen Police officers were assaulted compared to eight in the same period of 1996.

There were six cases of sexual exploitation of young people (none in '96) and 71 burglaries (22 in '96) although the burglary rate was down compared to 1994 and 1995.

The total number of day and night-time break-ins in homes and business rocketed from 210 to 313 while thefts went up from 65 incidents to 81.

But Mr. Scott pointed out that in the categories of crimes of violence, thefts, breaking offences and removals -- the areas covered in the Police statement -- crime was up in 70 percent of the categories.

In crimes of violence, he said, 64 percent or seven of the eleven sub-categories showed an increase, while thefts logged an increase in four out of five sub-categories (80 percent).

And in the area of breaking offences, seven of the eight areas looked at (87 percent) also showed a rise.

Three of the six sub-categories (50 percent) in the removals section were up over the corresponding period of last year.

CRIME CRM POLITICS PTL