Violent crimes rise for third year in a row
Violent crimes reported to police went up for the third year in succession last year, with head of law enforcement Ruari Hardy said that Guernsey’s nighttime economy accounted for ‘a fair percentage’ of these.
There were 1,097 cases in total, compared to 961 last year and 821 in 2021.
Of these, 584 were common assaults against adults – up from 476, and there were also 68 assaults on police officers, up from 47.
‘The nighttime economy obviously does account for a fair percentage of those offences,’ said Mr Hardy.
‘Our response to that is to try and have more high visibility police officers in Town with a view of preventing situations escalating.’
Alcohol was another factor and Mr Hardy said that almost half of people taken into custody for assault offences were under the influence of drink.
That meant it was important for the police to work with partners to try to stop such offences.
‘So particularly licensees, selling alcohol to people already intoxicated, dealing with brewing problem issues on licensed premises before they become more serious.’
Police have also looked to improve their relationships with security and door staff and asked to be involved with incidents as early as possible.
‘That’s not only in the areas of assaults but also in the areas of sexual offences as well,’ he said.
‘We asked them to bring us in at as a early stage as possible to prevent matters escalating, or for us to deal with them before they do escalate.’
More assaults on police officers locally reflects the increasing trend in the UK, too, said Chief Inspector Julie Palmer.
She said that officers were on duty as public servants to protect people.
‘Obviously if they are assaulted, it has an impact on their welfare, their physical wellbeing and sometimes there’s injuries sustained and it can mean time off work,’ she said.
‘So it does have quite a knock-on effect, and it probably has a knock-on effect to in relation to retention and ultimately, if other people are aware of it, in relation to recruitment.’
Mr Hardy said there was absolutely no excuse for assaulting a police officer.
‘Our staff do not come to work to help their community to end up being assaulted,’ he said. ‘Alcohol is definitely not an excuse and one assault on a police officer is one assault too many.’
Chief Inspector Palmer said there had also been assaults on Health & Social Care staff at the hospital and staff from other emergency services.
