Police: Crime Rate in Slovakia Lowest since Independence

Bratislava, February 6 (TASR) – The crime rate in Slovakia fell again on an annual basis in 2016, this time by 5 percent, while the police’s success rate in resolving individual crimes improved, said Interior Minister Robert Kalinak, Police Corps president Tibor Gaspar and first police vice-president Jaroslav Malik at a press conference on Monday.

A total of 69,635 crimes were registered in Slovakia last year, with the police identifying the offenders in almost 57 percent of cases. Kalinak noted that both these figures represented a new best since Slovakia became independent in 1993. At the same time, Kalinak stated that since 2006 – when he became interior minister for the first time (he’s been holding the post apart from a two-year hiatus ever since) – the crime rate has dropped by 40 percent.

With property crimes, such as thefts, becoming rarer again last year, the police focused more on ‘latent crimes’, such as tax fraud and domestic violence, said Kalinak.

The crime map didn’t change much in 2016, with Bratislava and Kosice regions having the highest crime figures. When it came to districts, Trnava and Presov were the worst off. One interesting fact is that while the police’s success in identifying perpetrators of individual crimes in Bratislava stood at a mere 10 percent in the mid-2000s, the figure has improved to 49 percent in the meantime, noted Kalinak.

As for individual cities and towns, Kosice had the highest number of crimes – 4,500, ahead of Trnava – 3,682. Conversely, Presov region’s districts of Svidnik (424 crimes) and Stara Lubovna (425) were the safest, said Gaspar.

According to Malik, the improvement in terms of security should be viewed in the context of Slovakia’s EU Council Presidency in the second half of 2016, which necessarily required tighter security measures.