The Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Professor Biman Prasad, has cautioned members of the public against listening to individuals exaggerating Fiji’s crime statistics.
While Prof Prasad acknowledged that Fiji’s crime rate had increased, he attributed the increase in recorded cases to the Coalition Government’s swift actions in tackling the issue.
“More people are being arrested, more people are being taken to court, more drug busts,” he said.
Prof Prasad said there were certain localised areas such as parts of Nadi where criminal activities were prevalent.
“If you go to Rakiraki, Tavua, some of the offences against property like theft, all these things, this is not something which only happened under the Coalition Government which some of the critics want to say. The statistics is better than what was there before because they are also including total number of reports coming in.
“If you take all that out, if you just go by the offences that have been prosecuted, it’s more. So don’t go by fakers, social media influencers who exaggerate this.”
Citing criminal offences statistics released by the Commissioner of Police’s Office, Prof Prasad said there were 19,838 offences recorded in 2019 for all categories of criminal cases.
He said 24,392 offences were recorded in 2020, 18,769 in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, 17,538 in 2022, 16,098 in 2023 and 20,384 in 2024.
“Between 2023 and 2024 it went up, but it’s still lower than what was there of 24,392 in 2020.”
Mr Prasad said there were a number of offences under the illicit Drugs Control Act 2004.
He said a total of 1275 drug related offences were recorded in 2019; 1501 in 2020; 1032 in 2021; 1236 in 2022; with an increase of 1650 offences in 2023; and 20,035 in 2024.
“All the increase for 4000 that you saw the total from 16,000 to 20,000, that 4000 comes from the drugs. What it shows is that the Coalition Government has taken the drug issue head on.”
“We are not saying that crime is not happening, in fact, we have to keep saying that this is a problem not just inherited by the Coalition Government, but also we’ve inherited the neglect of the previous government in dealing with it.”
Mr Prasad said it was imperative that members of the public understood that these statistics were not as alarming.
“We acknowledge that there are certain areas where certain types of crime have increased, particularly drug related offences and this shows very clearly from 1615 in 2023, it went up to 2035. If you compare that to 2022 it went up 2023 because that shows that more people are being arrested, more drug busts are happening, that’s what the statistics shows.”
