Livern Barrett, Gleaner Writer

Despite an overall 10 per cent increase in police operations, the number of murders reported last year is expected to climb past 1,670.

However, acting Deputy Commissioner of police Glenmore Hinds, who yesterday announced increases in all but two major categories of police operations last year, said he would not comment on this until the final number for 2009 was ready.

"The statistics have not yet been finalised ... I'm not in the business of assuming, I will wait until the figures are finalised before commenting on that," he said.

Communications director for the Jamaica Constabulary Force, Karl Angell, said the official number of murders for 2009 would be released shortly after noon today. Some 1,611 murders were reported in 2008.

Improvements

Highlighting some of his success, Hinds said the police apprehended 993 wanted persons, a 52 per cent increase over the 653 for the previous year and recovered over 8,430 assorted ammunition, up from 6,519.

The police statistics also showed that the number of persons arrested and charged rose to 32,923, up from 30,550; the police seized 51,977 offensive weapons, up from 39,132; the number of vehicles seized moved to 10,362, up from 6,472 and the number of tickets issued climbed to 641,434, up from 520,379.

The two areas of decline were the number of firearms recovered, which dropped by two to 671, and the number of warrants executed, which dipped by 733 to 3,374.

The acting DCP said during 2009, the police also carried out 53,967 raids and searched more than 1.5 million vehicles.