Violent crime is soaring according to the 2008 crime statistics, with murder, robbery and firearms offences all showing increases.

Overall crime is on the up for the fourth successive year with nearly 3,000 offences recorded the highest figure since 2002.

he statistics, released at a Police press conference yesterday, show firearms offences rose from 12 in 2007 to 19 in 2008, although Police appear clueless as to where the guns are coming from. Assistant Commissioner Mike Jackman said:"If we knew where they were coming from we would stop it.

"But the general trend is around the gang culture either people believing they have to protect themselves from other gangs or having it as some kind of status symbol."

He said Police mounted high profile operations in response to reports of gun crime to send the message it would not be tolerated. A unit had been formed specifically to deal with the firearm menace but tip-offs from the public were vital, added Mr. Jackman. He said: "It is something we seriously have on our radar in combating the increased use of firearms."

Some of the key stats 2008 are:

■ There were 358 reports of violent crime in 2008 up 9.3 percent from 2007

■ Robbery offences went up by 43 to 183

■ Firearms offences went up by seven to 19

■ Sexual exploitation of young persons went up by six to 12.

Probed on violent crime rising Mr. Jackman said: "A lot of robbery is youth on youth and we have seen young people randomly selecting groups that appear to vulnerable. We have factored that into how we Police to deal with those issues."

Mr. Jackman said data was analysed to make sure Police were deployed at the times and locations trouble might occur.

Often such crime involved chains being grabbed from people's necks.

He believes there could soon be a falling off in robbery statistics because of the new strategy of putting Police in hotspots.

But Mr. Jackman lamented public confidence in Police only stood at 49 percent. "We want to build the level of public trust and confidence.

"If we gain that level of confidence we are going to get more information from the public the barrier right now is people don't have that level of trust."

The 2008 stats showed that murders rose from three to five but Police pointed out that in each case at least one person had been charged in court, while in some cases multiple people had been charged.

There were 3,247 arrests in all last year. Mr. Jackman said:"For a small Island that is a lot of people that were arrested."

Repeat offenders are a big problem with four individuals registering 49 arrests between them while 520 people found themselves in custody more than once.

Theft was also up 9.3 percent with stealing from vehicles ensuring the rise despite theft from people actually going down.

Most of the thefts from vehicles were from the central parishes, with Bull's Head car park being the most notorious spot two people arrested for thefts there admitted to 50 incidents.

There was some good news residential burglary was down 17 to 638 although other burglary offences saw an increase as shop breaking rose. And joy riding went down 12 percent to 885 offences.

Deputy Commissioner Michael DeSilva said the stats from recent years had been recalculated after it was discovered a computer glitch meant some figures were being falsely recorded.

In an incident involving multiple offences sometimes every offence was recorded but sometimes only one was added. It means that some of the previous years have had their statistics altered.

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