Record number of criminal cases and criminal case production in 2022
In 2022, the Governor of Svalbard has had the highest number of criminal cases and criminal case production since the year 2000. The reason is not that there are necessarily more people committing criminal offences, but rather an increased presence and more controls carried out by the Governor in the field.
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For almost all crime groups, there are minor changes for 2022 compared to 2021. The two groups that stand out are environmental crime, where changes are as much as 33 more criminal cases in 2022 compared to the previous year, and for traffic, where the change is 20 cases. This must be seen in the context of a desired focus from the Governor’s side on presence out in the field and in traffic, the implementation of good and targeted inspections and controls, as well as the creation of relevant reports to the police, which has been one of several areas of focus in the past year, says the Governor Lars Fause.
- The Governor will continue with this initiative in 2023, and the hope is that this initiative will eventually lead to increased compliance with laws and regulations here on Svalbard, says Fause.
Increased production of criminal cases
The Governor had effective processing of the 176 criminal cases that were established and registered last year. At the end of the year, the average case processing time was 76 days (versus 91 days in 2021), the proportion of settled cases was 74% (68% in 2021), in addition to the arrears being a record low (arrears rate of 4.5% for cases older than 3 month and at 0% for cases older than 12 months).