Overall crime figures in Bermuda for the first nine months of the year are down by 34.1 percent.

The most dramatic decline was shown in the category of removed vehicles where there was a drop in reported cases by 41 percent with break-ins close behind with a decrease of 38.6 percent over 1995.

The news came from Police Commissioner Colin Coxall yesterday during a Press conference at Police headquarters in Prospect.

He said: "I truly hope that this will assist in alleviating some of the public concern about Bermuda's overall crime scene.'' However figures for murder and manslaughter, attempted murder, sexual exploitation and firearm offences were up.

Firearm offences were significantly up from one in 1995 to 13 in 1996. Ten offences involved possession of a gun while three related to the discharging of a firearm.

Mr. Coxall pointed out that eight of the firearm offences were committed by one person during five robberies and three were related to the James Caines murder.

"The public can therefore be assured, that although the increase in firearms offences appears extremely alarming, two individuals account for the vast majority of the 13 firearms cases and the dramatic increase is somewhat diminished.'' Murder and manslaughter were up by one over 1995 to four, attempted murder up from four to five over last year and sexual exploitation increased from seven to nine reported cases, continued Mr. Coxall.

But the category of violent crime showed an overall decline of some eight percent.

Meanwhile non-violent crimes including handbag snatches and thefts were up in areas involving visitors but overall the category had a drop of three percent.

Mr. Coxall said these offences continued to concern the Police as visitors were of crucial importance to Bermuda.

However the figures for crimes against persons showed an overall decrease of 11 percent.

He also expressed pleasure at the fact that nine of the 11 incidents which happened by the end of September were being processed through the court system and seven of those had already made it to Supreme Court.

Drug statistics were also made public during the Press conference.

There were 53 major illicit drug seizures which included 31 arrests, said Mr.

Coxall.

He added that 393 people had been arrested for drug related offences since January with 86 percent of offenders being male.

He added that 16 percent of these arrests involved visitors which was a down from the previous year.

An independent audit of the figures and comparisons has been commissioned and is being conducted by the Finance Ministry's social statistician Melinda Williams.

Mr. Coxall said: "When the Police Service released its last set of quarterly figures, some members of the public distrusted the statistics.

"Recent cases of violent crimes, such as the latest incident (the alleged murder of a five-year-old girl) and burglary would certainly seem to support the public perception.

"What we want to avoid, however, is that the public perception about the crime figures turns into public fear which will, in turn, feed the perception about a rise in crime.''