The increase in criminal activity in the first quarter of the year should alarm the community as it enters the summer tourism season.

There are several reasons for the upsurge, although drugs, and especially heroin, remain the cause for many break-ins and violent crimes. At the same time, the weak economy in the first three months of the year will certainly have contributed; as money gets tight, some people turn to crime in order to make ends meet. Their economic motivation does not make it right, but it is generally true that crime rises and falls in inverse proportion to the strength of the economy.

The rise in sexual crimes, particularly against minors, is also of concern as these acts against innocents are unacceptable in a civilised society (as the US Catholic Church is now belatedly discovering). People are thankfully more prepared to report crimes of these kinds, and it may be that better reporting has contributed to the rise in incidents.

It is a truism that certain types of offences rise and fall depending on whether repeat offenders who specialise in break-ins in certain neighbourhoods, bag snatches and so on are in prison or enjoying a temporary spell of freedom. For that reason, one has to take care to be neither too jubilant nor too concerned if particularly crimes jump or slump in a particular quarter.

However, a clear trend now seems to be developing over the last four or five quarters of rising crime and that is cause for concern.

It is up to the Police to deter and detect these crimes; if they are rising, the perpetrators need to be caught. With what is left of the tourism season now coming, it is doubly important that the Police presence on the streets be heightened and that hotels and guest properties take particular care to ensure that their properties are as secure as they possibly can be and that guests are advised on appropriate security measures. It would be nice if visitors could be told “there is no crime here” as they once were. It would also be a lie and it would be better to be honest at the beginning of a vacation than to be making amends at the end of it.