He murder of a minor under 15allegedly at the hands of his ex-partner of 17 years in Orihuela, placed media emphasis on the capital of Vega Baja, which is not experiencing its best year in terms of crime.
The multicultural population is chosen by thousands of foreigners as a vacation spot and retirement home for its tranquility and quality of life. However, Some crimes continue to grow.
Crime in Orihuela continues a worrying upward trend, with a general increase 3.8% of violations during the first half of 2024, according to data from the Ministry of the Interior.
Between January and June, 2,149 offenses in this municipality, compared to 2,070 for the same period in 2023. These figures exceed provincial growth, which is at 2.4%.
Increase in thefts
THE vehicle theft They are the cause of the increase in crime. With 51 flightsan increase of 34% Compared to 2023 and with a rate of 0.62 theft per 1,000 inhabitants, Orihuela is the second city where it is most likely to be a victim of this crime, behind Calpe.
In the home theftsOrihuela experienced an increase of 15.2%. These figures place Orihuela well above the provincial average, where these crimes have increased by 9% in the case of vehicles and reduced by 9.1% in houses.
As for the dcrimes against sexual freedomthe situation is more ambiguous. Although penetrative sexual assaults decreased by 20%, other crimes in this category increased by 10%, totaling 15 offenses, the same number as last year. In comparative terms, Orihuela wins compared to the average, since the province of Alicante records a general increase of 11.7% in these crimes.
With data from January to March, so the murder of the 15-year-old girl last Sunday is not counted, the city recorded no homicides during the first half of the year, nor any attempted murders, compared to three cases recorded in 2023. Likewise, crimes involving serious injuries have decreased by 37.9%while in the province they increased 20%.
If there is something common to all the territories of Alicante, it is the threat of criminals who operate on the Internet. Orihuela is no exception and the cybercrime continues to increase.
Orihuela thus recorded a slight increase in 1.5% in this type of offense, mainly motivated by computer scamswho developed a 2.4%. These crimes continue to increase at the provincial level, where for the first half of 2024, cybercrime recorded an increase of 5.2%.
Lack of police
A pending question for all municipalities of Alicante concerns the lack of National Police officers to cope with a growing population.
Orihuela is one of the most affected towns, as it has 16 agents per 10,000 inhabitants. The same situation occurs in other areas such as Alcoy (17 per 10,000), Elche (22) or Alicante (30), according to data provided by the JUPOL union to this newspaper.
The current provincial staff is approximately 2,300 national police officers. Taking into account that there are 1,955,000 inhabitants of Alicante, this means one agent for every 850 people.
The lack of means to fight crime is more alarming in populations that multiply their population during the summer months, like Orihuela.
Even if reinforcements are sent during this period, it is only an insufficient patch. Throughout the year, it would be necessary to increase the number of 30% until reaching the ideal figure between 40 and 50 agents for 10,000 people, they say from JUPOL.
