The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

NATIONAL Security Minister Wayne Munroe said officials intend to continue to make it much easier for people to report sexual offences.

The minister said that in some countries, a woman may be slow to go into a police station to report a crime due to fear.

However, officials want everyone in The Bahamas to feel comfortable in reporting to the police that a crime has been committed against them, regardless of the nature of the crime.

His comments came after Police Commissioner Clayton Fernander revealed on Friday that there were 55 rape cases reported last year, adding it was a 15 percent increase over 2021.

Activists said the increase of sex crimes is “not surprising”, arguing that the government has continuously failed to prioritise laws that protect women.

Addressing the increase in sex crimes and activists’ outcry, Mr Munroe said: “I wouldn’t be surprised if the initiative that the commissioner of police is doing now, which should make people more comfortable in reporting sex crimes, causes people to report more.

“In some countries, a woman may be slow to go into a police station to report a crime because of the reception she thinks she’s gonna get. In this country, we want everyone to feel comfortable in reporting to the police that a crime has been committed against them, regardless of the nature of the crime.

“So the commissioner has indicated that they’re opening a special unit that will focus on this and that this unit will have in the same place, organisations, NGOs, to provide support and care for the victims. So we intend to continue to make it much easier for people to report sexual offences and we intend to provide them the support. We don’t intend to do anything to discourage that as happens in other countries.”

The minister said the people that commit such offences need to understand that it will not be tolerated.

“There was some uproar last year when I notified the public about a release of a dangerous sexual offender. People were all over me about why did I splash the man’s face out to the public because in my judgement he was dangerous and the public needed to know about him.

“If you don’t want to run the risk of being notified to the public as a dangerous sexual offender, then don’t commit sex crimes, simple. We will do what is necessary to protect our daughters, our sisters, our mothers, we will not tolerate any interference.”

The commissioner unveiled the latest crime statistics during a press conference that showed that crimes against the person increased by 23 percent last year when compared to the same period in 2021, including murders, armed robberies and sex crimes that also trended upwards.

Mr Munroe said the public should be concerned about all violent crimes at any level as he commented on the commissioner’s statistics.

“They’ve categorised that down to when they happen, the age of people doing it, the number of people on bail, the percentage by motives, and the reason that you do that is to effectively attack it. So a clear example is the high number of people who are being victims on bail for homicide. So then if you want to address that, you have to address persons being released on bail and so we’re addressing that,” Mr Munroe said.

“When you now see, for instance, that there are people on bail committing offences, then you have to seek to target that, and that we’re doing as well together with the Office of the DPP. I continue to say from the day I came into this chair that one murder in The Bahamas is one murder too many.”

He also said people have a right to record police when they are overstepping their bounds, while stressing that anyone who confronts police with a weapon should expect to be neutralised.

“No human being confronted with a gun, trained and armed with a gun, to confront the threat of a gun is going to do anything other than seek to neutralise the other person with the gun. So young men and mothers, we urge you that (are) walking around with a gun, having a gun, puts you at risk of dying and so we’re encouraging you to stop doing it,” Mr Munroe said.