Balearics had highest crime rate in Spain in 2005

Joan Collins
THE Balearics have the highest crime rate in Spain with 79.8 crimes for every 1'000 inhabitants, it was revealed yesterday.
This is 30.5 points more than the national average, warned the Balearic Minister of the Interior, Jose Maria Rodriguez, yesterday. He demanded more police officers and more coordination between the security forces in the Balearics. Rodriguez expressed his concern at these figures in a press conference, in the company of the director of the Balearic Institute of Public Security, Joan Feliu, at which he presented the Balearic Islands Local Police Forces' 2005 report. According to this report, the Balearic Islands top the national list for crime rates, the worst being in Ibiza and Formentera with a level of 118 crimes for every 1'000 inhabitants, while on Majorca it is 78 and on Minorca it is much lower with 47. Actually, a total of 79'363 crimes and petty crimes took place on the islands in 2005, some 2.27 percent more than in 2004, a year in which 77'595 were recorded. The Balearic Local Police Forces, which has a force of 3'400 officers, recorded a total of 16'210 investigations and statements, of which 90.25 percent (14'629) were on Majorca, 5.43 percent (880) on Minorca and 4.32 percent (701) on Ibiza and Formentera. Of these, 66.34 percent were related to crimes of theft, followed by assaults on people (9.96 percent), domestic violence (3.75 percent), public order (3.7 percent) and others. In addition to these, 3'934 administrative reports relative to citizen security were written last year, some 59.77 percent of which were for possession or consumption of drugs and 9.52 percent for crimes related to guns, 3.41 percent public order, 2.38 percent civil disobedience and the rest for other reasons. In total, officers from the Balearic Local Police Forces arrested 3'182 people for non-traffic crimes, 2'664 on Majorca, 415 on Ibiza and Formentera and 103 on Minorca. Of this figure, which rises to 4'387 if arrests for traffic offences are taken into account, 59 percent were taken to court, while the rest were handed over to the State security forces: the National Police Force of the Guardia Civil. Feliu said that with regard to the relationship between the Local Police Forces and the State security forces there was a patent “lack of coordination” and in 81.57 percent of cases there is “no sort of agreement” between them.