MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Head of the Manchester police Deputy Superintendent Carey Duncan says crime continues to trend down in this south-central parish.

“We have what we call numbers and we have perceptions, and in my mind, where perception and numbers come together, then numbers will speak higher than perception,” Duncan said on Monday during a community meeting in Plowden, south Manchester.Duncan, who has been at the helm of Manchester police since April, pointed out that the statistics show the parish recording reductions in most categories of major crimes.

“There is a perception that we are being bombarded with crime in Manchester, but that is a perception. When we look at the numbers, the numbers isn’t supporting that any at all.

“When we do our comparative analysis and we look at the numbers this year when compared to last year, we are doing way much better. Last year at this time we record 120 major crimes in the parish. To date we have recorded 56 major crimes,” added Duncan.As at June 9, Manchester recorded 19 murders when compared to 23 for the corresponding period last year.

“We are down where murder is concerned. We have only one of our major crime that is showing a little bit of increase and that is in the area of shooting, but that we are working on assiduously, because we are going to get that down also,” said Duncan.He added: “When we look at the murders that we have in Manchester, I kid you not, we can’t prevent all of the murders as much as we try… we do whatever we can to minimise and to ensure and try to eradicate murders.

The ones that slip through the cracks, we have a team of detectives in this parish who, when you look at last year’s murder statistics in Manchester, our detectives managed to clear up 77 per cent of the murders committed in Manchester. Our national target is 60 per cent,” he added.Over the years Manchester has been plagued by domestic violence cases, and according to the Duncan, there has been no domestic violence-related death so far this year.

“Last year we had four murders [linked] to a domestic nature, but since the start of this year we haven’t recorded any. What will happen sometimes is that we will have interpersonal [conflicts] and people may confuse that with domestic [conflicts],” said Duncan.