Police are reporting ongoing concerns about domestic violence only one month into 2022.

It follows reported incidents of domestic violence surpassing 2020 figures in 2021, with October holding the highest monthly figure recorded in the past five years.

Police spokesman Trevor Pitt said domestic violence continues to remain consistently high with “little evidence of any improvement on the horizon”.

“Socio-economic conditions and pressures may well exacerbate relationship disputes in the coming months,” Pitt said.

Statistics for January showed “no particular trend other than remaining far too high each month”, he added.

There were 31 complaints in January, nine of those categorised as violent.

By comparison there were four in January 2021, three in 2020, and 11 complaints in 2019.   

Police received 40 complaints in October, 2021, all classified under statistical criteria as domestic violence.

Meanwhile, other reported crime showed some improvement on historical figures.

Road crashes, burglaries, thefts, and unlawfully taken motorbikes all fell below projected outcomes for January, Pitt said.

Reported burglaries totalled four for the opening month of the year compared to five in 2021 and 16 in 2020. 

Crash figures indicated some improvement with 10 reported last month compared to nine in 2021, 20 in 2020 and 20 in 2019. 

Pitt said: “Driver behaviour and attitude continues to plague the Rarotonga road environment with carelessness, inconsideration, and poor judgement, being the main contributing factors of crashes, last month.”

Sixteen vehicles were involved in crashes with nine people receiving minor injuries and four being hospitalised last month.

During January, 66 fines were processed for drivers, with nine people incurring demerit points after being convicted for minor offences. 

Two drivers lost their driver licences for 12 months as a result of drunk driving convictions last month, with one person appearing in court charged with driving while disqualified.