by TREVOR YEARWOOD

TIMES MAY BE TOUGH, but crime is down.

And this is so despite a persisting manpower shortage in the Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF).

That's the news from Commissioner of Police Darwin Dottin, who yesterday assured Barbadians that law-enforcers would be out on the streets "in their numbers" this Christmas to deter the criminally-minded.

Dottin told a Press conference yesterday at police headquarters on Roebuck Street, The City, that overall cases of crime fell 1.8 per cent at the end of last October, compared to the period January to October 2008.

"Reported crime at the end of October was 7 400, which represents a just under two per cent reduction," Dottin announced during a briefing attended by the top brass of the force.

"I must say that is very gratifying to us because at the beginning of the year, given the difficulties with the economy and so forth, we were quite apprehensive as to how things would have gone, but there has been no serious upsurge in crime so far this year and we anticipate that . . . perhaps we will record a reduction in overall crime this year."

The commissioner said the number of murders was down from 20 at the end of October last year to 18 this year.

He reported a 20 per cent reduction in aggravated burglaries, a four per cent drop in robberies to 304 cases, a similar reduction in serious bodily harm instances (to 170) and a 23 per cent fall in the use of firearm-enabled crimes, including robberies, homicide and aggravated burglaries.

He listed residential burglaries as "the most prolific volume crime in Barbados", pointing out that they comprised 15 per cent of all reported crime. Cases of residential burglaries fell from 1 449 between January and October last year to 1 141 this year.

Poor home security was among the causes while "the crime is fuelled by unscrupulous persons who are willing to purchase stolen property", the police chief said.

Despite what he called "a very successful year", Dottin noted that the force still had a manpower shortage, with at least another 100 officers required.