Conventional crime fell by 3.2% in Cantabria until September, going from 14,445 crimes known to the Security Forces between January and September 2022 to 13,983 in the same period of this year, while cybercrime continues, as in the country as a whole, its upward trend with an increase of 17.9% until the third quarter.

The delegate of the Government in Cantabria, Ainoa Quiñones, has highlighted the work carried out by the agents of the Security Forces and Corps in Cantabria, both the National Police and the Civil Guard and the local police, because “all the bodies work in a coordinated and joint way to guarantee social peace, coexistence and security” in the face of crime.

Quiñones has indicated that, until the end of the third quarter of 2023, the criminal offenses known to the Security Forces (National Police, Civil Guard and local police) increased slightly, by 1.1%, to 18,299 crimes.

Of the total of 18,299 known criminal offenses between January and September, 13,983 correspond to conventional crime, which was reduced by 3.2%, and 4,316 corresponded to crimes in the field of cybercrime, which in the case of Cantabria has increased by 17.9% until September, according to the Balance of Criminality made public this Friday by the Ministry of the Interior.

With these data, the crime rate in Cantabria stands at 40.8 criminal offenses per 1,000 inhabitants and places the Autonomous Community as the ninth safest in Spain, behind Extremadura (32.6), Asturias (33), Galicia (34.7), Aragón (35.4), Castilla y León (36.4), La Rioja (38), Ceuta (38.5) and Castilla La Mancha (39.9).

With this rate of 40.8 crimes per 1,000 inhabitants, Cantabria is 10 points below the crime rate of the whole country, which stood at the end of the third quarter of the year at 50.8.

CYBERCRIME ACCOUNTS FOR 23.5% OF INFRINGEMENTS

In the Crime Balance, the indicators are subdivided into two categories: conventional crime and cybercrime. With this, the Ministry of the Interior wants to have an X-ray improvement of the phenomenon of crime through the Internet.

Thus, in the case of Cantabria, of the 18,299 known criminal offenses between January and September, 23.5% correspond to those committed through the internet or through the network, specifically 3,947 computer scams and 369 other types of cybercrime.

As for conventional crime, 13,983 criminal offenses were known until September in Cantabria, which represents a decrease of 3.2% compared to the same period of 2022. Compared to the previous year, wilful homicides and consummate murders fell by 100%, sexual assaults fell by 19.4%, and robberies with violence or intimidation fell by 1.6%.

On the contrary, there was an upward trend in vehicle theft offences, which increased by 50 per cent; or known drug trafficking offences, which increased by 31.9 per cent.

For all the known criminal offences in the first semester, the Security Forces and Corps (National Police, Civil Guard and local police) have arrested and/or investigated 4,340 people.

MUNICIPALITIES WITH MORE THAN 20,000 INHABITANTS

On the other hand, the Crime Balance includes the safety indicators of the municipalities over 20,000 inhabitants (it takes into account the registered population and not the linked one), which in the case of Cantabria are Santander, Torrelavega, Camargo, Castro Urdiales and Piélagos.

In Santander, September 2023 was closed with a crime rate of 45.9 criminal offenses per 1,000 inhabitants and the total number of known crimes increased by 8.4%. Meanwhile, in Torrelavega the crime rate stood at 42 and the known criminal offenses rose by 1.6%.

In the case of Camargo, the crime rate at the end of September was 48.8 criminal offenses per 1,000 inhabitants and the known crimes decreased by 0.9%.

In Castro Urdiales, the crime rate stood at 47.9 and known criminal offenses decreased by 2.7%. Finally, Piélagos closed the third quarter with a crime rate of 29.5 criminal offenses per 1,000 inhabitants and known crimes fell by 7.1%.

All these data are available and can be consulted in the portal that the Ministry of the Interior has enabled for this purpose (www.estadisticasdecriminalidad.es).