Crime rose by almost 18 percent between June and September compared to the previous three months, Police said today.

But Police said the overall crime rate is heading down. Compared to the same period last year, crime fell by 12.8 percent.

However, serious violent crimes are continuing to rise compared to last year, according to Police statistics.

And although there was only one murder in the third quarter, there have been seven so far this year compared to six in all of 2009.

There were 11 injuries as a result of shootings through the quarter, compared to six in the second quarter.

Confirmed firearm incidents in the third quarter increased by three to 20 in the third quarter, with unconfirmed firearm incidents also increasing from 38 to 40 in comparison to the second quarter of 2010. Both confirmed and unconfirmed firearm incidents are at all time highs for a quarterly period.

And there were 35 serious assaults in the quarter compared to 29 in the second quarter and in the third quarter last year. For the year to date, there have been 97 serious assaults compared to 84 through the first nine months of 2009 and 110 for the whole of last year.

Other highlights from the report:

- Property crimes jumped by 34.8 percent from the ten-year low number recorded in the second quarter, and were down on the third quarter of 2009.

- Traffic collisions plunged by eight percent compared to the second quarter and were down on the same period in 2009 as well.

- Drug arrests fell by almost 14 percent compared to the second quarter of 2010 but were up 71 percent compared to last year.

The value of drugs seized was $2.4 million in the quarter.

For the full story see tomorrow’s Royal Gazette.