STA, 26 May 2022 - The police dealt with the fewest criminal offences in the last ten years in 2021, while at the same time recording the highest clearance rate in the last decade, shows the 2021 report on police work that the outgoing government debated on Wednesday.
The police processed some 44,260 offences for which a criminal complaint or report to supplement a criminal complaint was filed in what is the lowest number in the last ten years. The ten-year average is 67,490, more than 50% above the 2021 total.
The clearance rate stood at almost 55%, the highest in the last decade. The average clearance rate over the last ten years is just over 49%.
The police dealt with nearly 6,700 white-collar crimes, a figure that is below the ten-year average. The share of economic damage in total criminal damage was 81%, which compares to a ten-year average of 83%.
The trend of financial investigations conducted pursuant to the criminal procedure act remains positive, with 454 financial investigations carried out last year.
The police processed 62,300 violations of public order regulations, down by 2,000 on the year before, of which the largest number, slightly over 28,400, were violations of the infectious diseases act in what was a year marked by Covid restrictions, same as 2020 was when more than 30,400 such breaches were recorded.
There were nearly 430 public gatherings last year, and 67% of them were unregistered, reads the report.
