Minister highlights positive crime trends

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25: This year is set to record the lowest overall crime rates since 2000, Minister of National Security Wayne Perinchief told MPs on Friday.

Mr Perinchief was speaking after a row broke out over Bermuda’s murder rates relative to the rest of the world after the publication of UN statistics on global homicide.

The Royal Gazette used the figures as the basis for a story stating that Bermuda’s murder rate was nearly twice the global average.

A total of eight people have been murdered this year in Bermuda — giving a rate of 12.5 murders per 100,000 people compared to the world average of 6.9 per 100,000 people.

In the House of Assembly today, Mr Perinchief said: “There is an old adage that relates to crying ‘fire!’ in a crowded theatre. There may well be a fire and so the exclamation by that individual has the immediate ring of truth. However, is it responsible to cause panic and increase the likelihood of injury from causes unrelated to the fire by that shout? I think not.

“Monday’s edition of The Royal Gazette shouted fire. The statistics presented and the extrapolations based on the per capita formula were correct. That however, is not the issue.

“As a country, public safety and confidence in our institutions is one of the attractive factors to business, investment and tourists.

“Each entity with a public voice has a role to play in promoting our single greatest attribute: our overall attractiveness as a jurisdiction to vacation, live and do business.”

Mr Perinchief went on to say that 2010 had recorded the lowest overall crime figures for a decade and the first three quarters of this year signalled a further decrease for 2011.

The former senior police officer added: “None of this can be taken to minimise the scale of the problem we face. None of this can take away the pain of those families who mourn the loss of young men to violence.

“The message of those figures is that every waking hour of police time is spent pursuing a working strategy of disrupting the rhythm of gang violence and promoting safer communities for the island.”

In response to a previous story on the same issue, Royal Gazette Editor Bill Zuill told us earlier this week that “nothing can distort the fact that eight people have been murdered in Bermuda this year and that this is an unacceptably high rate by any measure. In that context, comparing Bermuda’s murder rate to other countries large and small, is relevant and in context.”

Mr Perinchief said today: “I encourage free press and do not shy away from bad news. I have presented today what some might term the silver lining to the cloud created by Monday’s story.

“This Government, the Bermuda Police Service, members of the local community organizations and ordinary men and women resident in Bermuda do their part every day to turn around bad situations. To borrow from the international business slogan from a few years ago, ‘It’s about all of us’”.

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