Contact crimes against the person:
The period, running from April 2015 to March 2016 saw 10 murder cases reported – the same as the previous period (April 2014 to March 2015) in Brighton Beach. Montclair saw an increase in murder with 16 reported cases compared to last year’s eight murder cases. Wentworth experienced a small decrease in reported murders.
Sexual offences increased by one, while attempted murder cases halved from 16 to eight and assault with the intent to inflict grievous bodily harm dropped from 100 to 85 in Brighton Beach while sexual offences in Wentworth went from 32 to 34 in the past year and attempted murder decreased by 3% and assault with the intent to inflict grievous bodily harm increased by 10%. Attempted murder is up by 40% in Montclair but the area saw a slight decrease of 2% in assault with the intent to inflict grievous bodily harm. Sexual offenses increased from 22 reported cases to 26.
Common assault increased by 8.6% from 163 to 177; common robbery remained the same at 21 and robbery with aggravating circumstances dropped by 18 to 98 in Brighton Beach. Common assault in Wentworth went down to 244 cases compared to 245. However, common robbery went down by 14% from 42 to 36 cases and robbery with aggravating circumstances dropped from 111 to 102. Common assault in Montclair decreased by 1.7% from 173 to 170; common robbery declined by 40% from 85 to 50 cases. Robbery with aggravating circumstances stayed in the 200 mark, decreasing from 279 to 249.
Contact-related crimes:
Contact related crimes dropped 18.8%, down to 65 with arson at zero from two during the previous period and malicious damage to property down 13 from 78 in Brighton Beach. Montclair saw an increase in contact related crimes from 62 to 99 in the past year. No arson cases were reported in the area and malicious damage to property stands at 99 cases. Wentworth had a 7.5% increase in contact related crimes, which numbers at 100. Arson remains the same of 2 cases and malicious damage to property increases by 7.7%.
Property-related crimes:
Burglaries at non-residential premises went up by 6.7% to 96 while those at residential premises declined 10.9% to 311 (the highest decrease for the Brighton Beach SAPS area). Conversely, theft of motor vehicles and motorcycles saw the highest increase, from 113 to 147.Theft out of motor vehicles decreased by 20 to 137. As was the case in the previous period, there were no reports of stock theft.
In Wentworth burglaries at non-residential premises went down by 3.3% from 60 to 58 cases while residential premises went from 235 to 237, the highest in the past 10 years. Theft of motor vehicles and motorcycles drastically decrease from 52 to 2 cases, a whopping 96.2% while theft out of motor vehicles increased by 56.6% from 76 to 119. Montclair burglaries at non-residential premises upped from 87 to 101 and 377 to 378 at residential premises. Montclair also experienced a massive decline in theft of motor vehicles and motorcycles from 102 to 2 but a worrying increase in theft out of motor vehicles from 267 to 365 brings to concern from residents.
See the rest of the crime statistics for local policing areas at www.southlandssun.co.za
Crime detected as a result of police action:
Illegal possession of firearms and ammunition cases dropped from 24 to 22; drug-related crimes went up by 29 to 825; driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs increased marginally from 166 to 171 and sexual offences as a result of police action dropped from six to two. Montclair experienced an all-around decrease in illegal possession of firearms and ammunition cases from 20 to 15; drug-related crimes saw a 31.4% decline from 706 to 484 and driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs had a drastic turn-around from 337 to 188 and sexual offences as a result of police action remain at 0. Wentworth also dropped slightly from last year. Illegal possession of firearms and ammunition cases dropped by 21.7% from 23 to 18. Drug-related crimes declined from 629 to 532 and driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs decreased from 147 to 110. One case was reported bringing an increase in sexual offences as a result of police action.
Subcategories of aggravated robbery:
Hijacking in Brighton Beach remained the same at 15 while there were no reports of truck hijacking, cash in transit robberies or bank robberies – the same as the previous period. Robberies at residential premises reduced 28.6% to 10, and robberies at non-residential premises went down 8% to 23. Hijacking in Montclair decreased by 31.2% from 53 to 24, truck hijacking decreased by 150% from 5 to 3 reported cases. Robberies at residential premises went down by 25% and robberies at non-residential premises hit a low from 19 to 6 cases.
Wentworth had an almost 20% decrease in hijacking from 54 to 44. Truck hijacking went down by one incident. Robberies at residential premises had a 33.3% decrease and a -9.1% decrease in robberies at non-residential premises.
Read KZN Transport, Community Safety and Liaison MEC, Mxolisi Kaunda’s speech to SAPS management on the crime statistics.
