The Tribune

By KYLE WALKINE

Tribune Staff Reporter

kwalkine@tribunemedia.net

STATE Minister of National Security Keith Bell said while he wishes the Bahamas will one day see a year of no murders recorded, he hopes the count will be no higher than 40 by 2016. 

Mr Bell told The Tribune yesterday the government will “absolutely” see to it that the murder count decreases, adding that they have set policies and provided resources to ensure that there is a “drastic decrease” in the homicide rate before this term in office is over. 

“I would like to see it drop to zero,” Mr Bell told The Tribune.

“Realistically, that will not happen. But I could recall that given our demographics and the other factors that come into the picture, we are a major transshipment point for drugs, guns and illegal immigrants. We have a major poaching issue. We have all of these subcultures in our country. But we should not average more than 40 homicides a year. I would like to see us get back to the state of where we have 40 by 2016. But even that is too much.”

According to Police Commissioner Ellison Greenslade there were 111 murders in 2013, eight less than 2012. 

Crime statistics recently released by the Ministry of National Security show that the murder rate from January 1 to June 10 increased by nine per cent from last year. 

However, the statistics show that, during the specified time period, most other major crimes are down compared to last year.

During the 2012 campaign season, the then opposition Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) posted billboards highlighting the 400 plus murders which occurred under the Ingraham administration. 

Since coming to office, the Christie administration has received criticism for making crime a political issue.

However Mr Bell said the difference between the way the Free National Movement (FNM) fought crime and the way the government does is through the application and identification of resources.

“There were about 468 homicides under the FNM administration between 2007 and 2012,” he said.

“They had a system that was broken, where in the Office of the Attorney General they cancelled the Swift Justice initiative. This made it difficult to track which cases should be tried in a timely manner. These fellas who killed three or four people, you could not track that. If you’re not tracking that, how do you know where to deploy your resources?

“If you look at when the FNM came to power in 2007, they brought 120 vehicles for the police to patrol in which were completely unsuitable for patrol. They were family vehicles. We came in and bought the Ford Taurus interceptors, which are specially designed for mobile patrol for the police. So it means that you get more mileage and better efficiency.”

Mr Bell said there is definitely a connection between a government’s effort in crime fighting and the amount of serious crimes that happen in the country. 

He added that the biggest challenge for the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) is the fact that there is no DNA lab. 

“The government is now in the process of drawing a conceptual plan for a lab,” the minister said. “Every murder, sexual offence or armed robbery case requires work to be done in the DNA lab. Juries rarely convict if you don’t have DNA evidence. Our evidence now has to be packaged and sent to the DNBA lab in the US. So our priorities aren’t necessarily theirs. So now, we have dates set for trial but the cases can’t be heard because you don’t have the DNA evidence.”

The minister noted that for the past 10 years, murder declined during the summer months.