Interior Ministry releases crime statistics after two-year pause

Georgia’s newly appointed Interior Minister Giorgi Gakhartia has kept his promise and the ministry has released detailed crime statistics that the body did not publish in the previous two years.

The statistics reveal that last year, 37,944 crimes were registered. This is a 5.4 percent increase in comparison to the data for 2016.

The Interior Ministry is an open and transparent body and we believe genuine results can be achieved by taking into account the data and figures”, the ministry wrote. 

The released statistics reveal the following:

• Crimes involving death increased by 11.9 percent compared to 2016; a significant portion of these cases involved charges for inducing an individual to commit suicide.
• Crimes involving bodily harm increased by 14.8 percent; the ministry says the increase was due to increased awareness of domestic violence issues, which in turn lead to more calls being made to the police. 
• Human rights and freedoms violations increased by 23.2 percent, in particular - threats of bodily harm or murder. The Interior Ministry commented that this was also a result of increased awareness of domestic violence, which resulted in more threats being reported. 
• Property crimes increased by 8.1 percent compared to 2016, including robbery, swindling and money extortion. 
• Crimes hindering the enforcement of a court verdict increased by 20.5 percent. 
• Crimes against public security and order decreased by 19.5 percent, as did drugs by 8.3 percent, traffic violations by 16.4 percent 
• The ministry stated that they will release monthly statistics in February and March, after which crime statistics will be released quarterly.