By DANA SMITH

Tribune Staff Reporter

dsmith@tribunemedia.net

THE country’s crime levels are “just as intense” as they were last year and unless the Bahamas takes different measures to tackle the problem – it will not change, the executive director of Bahamas Against Crime said yesterday.

Rev CB Moss also hit out at the “unavailability of accurate crime figures” and explained the country’s persistent crime problem will only get better if every citizen – not just police – makes an effort to combat it.

“We have seen efforts made to introduce new techniques to fight crime but as we have been saying for the last five or six years, all efforts to fight crime that leave out major stakeholders is doomed to fail in the long run. The police cannot be seen as the only weapon in the fight against crime,” he said.

Those “stakeholders,” he explained, include churches, the business and civic communities, and the general public.

“We must all own the problem of crime in the Bahamas and until that happens we are not going to be giving it our best effort – and we see that today,” Rev Moss said.

“Crime is not really being reduced – and I’m not talking about a few numbers down here, a few numbers up there – but crime is just as intense as it was last year and it’s going to be the same next year unless and until well-thought out initiatives are taken. And those initiatives must involve everyone because we are all responsible.”

Rev Moss also spoke on the availability of those crime numbers. He explained the figures must be easier for the public to gain access to in order for everyone to collectively address the problem.

“I think the unavailability of accurate crime figures is a mistake being made by whomever is responsible... Crime is not a police problem, alone, we all are the owner of the problem,” he said.

“I find it difficult to follow the crime statistics myself, I’ve given up really, because you never have accurate figures. That should not be. The public is entitled to these figures and whatever the figures are that’s published, we know that’s basically part of the story.

“Because there are so many criminal activities that are not being firstly reported to the police, for various reasons, and then those activities that are reported that do not all make their way to the public – through the media, again for various reasons. That is wrong. We should know exactly what’s happening so that we can decide what can be done to address it.”

The thing that criminals fear most, Rev Moss continued, is the collaboration of the public against them.

“They believe as long the public is not against them that they’re going to be all right,” he said. “The one thing they fear is to see the main stakeholders in this country standing up against them. That is the law enforcement agencies, that is the church, that is the business community, that’s the various organizations, saying: this is our society and we’re not going to allow you to destroy it.”

And this collaboration, he declared, “must” be led by the government.

“It is their responsibility,” he said. “Every government of every country has the primary responsibility of maintaining a reasonable level of security for its people. The government is mandated to do that. The government is really the only entity with the resources.”

When asked how he believes the current government is doing in their efforts to battle crime, Rev Moss said: “I think the effort is there, I just think we’re on the wrong track.”

That “wrong track” is believing the police are the only solution to crime, he said, explaining it is a “mistake” that both governments have been making for years.

“Crime is not changing and it will not change with the methods that are being used – that’s my fundamental point. If we try something for an extended period of time and nothing happens, then we must decide to do something different.”