“2018 murder count lowest in nine years” – The Nassau Guardian

Excerpt from this article; “With 90 murders recorded in 2018, The Bahamas has seen the lowest murder count since the 85 reported in 2009.

Murders decreased by 26 percent in 2018 compared to 2017 when there were 122 murders.

Police reported last year that while rape increased by 12 percent, murders, shootings, armed robberies and stolen vehicles saw  significant decreases compared to 2017.

Minister of National Security Marvin Dames attributed the decrease to the police force’s adjustment of operational strategies.

During the budget debate last June, Dames said when the Free National Movement came to office Bahamians were tired of high murder rates and ‘demanded that this administration get to work.’

‘We did’, he said. ‘We initiated and executed our short, medium and long term goals in our crime plan.  And while we are certainly not resting on our laurels, we are making inroads in reducing crimes.”

First allow me to say that it is never a good idea to make crime a political issue, because it entails much more than the legislators and the police but it also involves the people at large, but at the same time to not acknowledge that maybe that something positive may have been done is very disingenuous; because if the crime rate had escalated beyond the statistics of the previous years many, if not all of us,  would look to the government to shoulder the blame.

There are many amongst us that would say that to ‘celebrate’ a low murder rate is a poor barometer of the state of a country but while I really do believe that anyone is ‘celebrating’; as the Minister for National Security suggests, we still have a long way to go and a lot of work to do, there must be some acknowledgment that maybe the Ministry of National Security, along with the Royal Bahamas Police Force and all other branches of national security are indeed making some progress and should be encouraged in their efforts if they are not going to be commended.

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