Acting Deputy Commissioner of Police Owen Ellington told journalists at the Police High Command's quarterly press conference yesterday that the crime trend by region was changing in significant ways.

He said this new development had influenced the spread of law enforcement and crime-fighting personnel across the island in the first half of the year.

The senior police official brought data for the first half of 2009 to demonstrate the significant nature of the shift.

They showed declines in major criminal activities in the Kingston Metropolitan Region and collective increases in rural communities.

Ellington noted that the number of victims of violent crimes in the Corporate Area was 99 fewer than last year, reflecting an 11 per cent drop in the murder rate when compared with the first half of 2008.

Contrastingly, the total number of murders in rural communities marginally increased by two per cent.

The decline in crime in urban communities continued in shootings, seven per cent; rape, 25 per cent and carnal abuse, 29 per cent.

On the other hand, the number of reported cases of shootings increased in rural areas by 16 per cent; the rape number is also down in the rural communities (13 per cent).

However, there was a marked increase in the number of reported cases of carnal abuse (52 per cent) in rural communities.

Ellington attributed the trend to change in location of perpetrators and the networking of some criminal organisations in a number of communities.

He said reports of major crimes for the first six months of 2009 increased overall by just under 24 per cent or more than 1,000.

Ellington cited the spike in the number of property crimes - notably robbery - by 231, an increase of 19 per cent.

He noted that break-ins were also up by 847 or 87 per cent, with the growth rate similar in both urban and rural areas.

Ellington said analysis revealed that the weekend period between Friday evenings and Monday mornings are the times when criminals strike most frequently.