Despite claims that crime has decreased for the first half of 2012, The Royal Bahamas Police Force has not released crime statistics.
Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade said that serious crime, with the exception of armed robbery, is down six percent overall from the beginning of the year through the end of June, compared to the same time last year.
Though statistics like the murder count can be tallied by the media and general public throughout the year, it is nearly impossible to keep an accurate record of major crimes like armed robbery, assault and housebreakings as many of these crimes are not reported by police on a regular basis.
And even the murder count has recently come into question after a discrepancy between Police Force statistics and those of The Guardian was discovered.
It stems from the reclassification of two fairly recent killings, which when taken into account – The Guardian’s records indicate that 74 murders occurred up to July 16 this year. However, police claim 73 murders up to the same point.
The commissioner also asserted that murder was down, however, the information given by police contradicts the commissioner’s statement on murder as there were 73 murders committed up to the same point last year.
The Nassau Guardian has made numerous requests for the statistics to no avail. Assistant Commissioner of Police Anthony Ferguson was contacted, who has responsibility for crime, to assist with providing the data.
He was unable to provide the statistics, although the reasons why were not clear.
