---

Most of us in Bermuda have felt that crime has been increasing, particularly over the past several years. There seems to be more frequent reports of muggings of locals and tourists, more break-ins, more robberies, more shootings - more crime all round.

So I was surprised and somewhat baffled when, during the election run-up last December, the PLP issued a statement that declared crime had gone down. "Violent crime is down," the statement said; "theft is down." 'Burglary is neither rising nor falling,' the statement trumpeted and "total crime incidents are down."

I didn't believe it at the time. It seemed to me that the statement declaring 'crime is down' flew in the face of the reports we were hearing in virtually every Monday morning's newscasts. But that statement was released barely two weeks before the election and the chance of gathering and publishing any statistical challenge was lost in the flurry of all that was going on.

We now know from just-released police statistics that:

In the past year,

n robbery has gone up 48.3 percent;

n bodily wounding has gone up ten per cent;

Since 2006,

n residential burglary has gone up 75.5 per cent;

In the last seven years,

n violent crime has increased by 44.5 per cent.

The PLP's declaration that crime has gone down is also disputed by an analysis of statistics from the police service web page; www.bermudapoliceservice.bm by a police officer in a now-suppressed blog, which showed murders were increasing at the rate of 50 per cent every two years. Comparing 2006 to 2005, the officer's blog-site information, which has not been disputed, showed:

n 24% increase in reported theft;

n 11% increase in unlawful home invasion;

n 19% increase in unlawful school invasion;

n 73% increase in unlawful shop invasion;

n 47% increase in unlawful office invasion;

n 20% increase in unlawful unclassified premises invasion;

n 34% increase in assault causing grievous bodily harm;

n 22% increase in sexual assaults on children of both genders.

How is it that the PLP's pre-election statement and the Police Service statistics are presenting two very different stories about local crime?

The public knows from its own experiences that Bermuda is presenting as a less safe place almost daily. And we find our experience reinforced from the police statistics. Could it be that the PLP pre-election statement was at best a distortion of the truth, and at worst a blatant lie? Were PLP supporters misled yet again to serve purely political interests?

The real question is when will the PLP family decide they've had enough? When will they look through the veil of doublespeak, and press conferences timed to overshadow bad news, and trick answers to questions asked in Parliament, and realise that their leader and his coterie are doing damage to the original dream of the party, which was to dismantle a ruling elite and introduce an era of more open, honest and truthful politics?

While Bermuda's level of crime is low compared with most other places, it is high compared with what it was not so long ago; and it is increasing. The community deserves to know the truth about what is happening.

Attempts by the government to deceive the public about crime are indicative of an arrogance that has taken over at the helm of Bermuda's ship of state. The crew must wake up and regain control before the ship is run aground.[[In-content Ad]]

---