By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

KEITH Bell, State Minister for National Security, said yesterday that contrary to earlier reports attempted murder will still be classified as a major crime.

Last week, Police Commissioner Ellison Greenslade told the media that moving forward crime statistics will be reported and released in a different format.

The first set of crime statistics under the new changes are expected to be released next week.

Mr Bell said the police are not attempting to hide crime statistics but rather to fall in line with the way crime is reported in other jurisdictions.

“It is utter nonsense that we are trying to hide so-called true crime statistics. When I served on the police force I served under the Research and Planning Statistics under the FNM as a matter of fact under then Minister Tommy Turnquest. At that time I advised them of what was going on in the Caribbean and how things were changing in terms of gathering and analyzing statistics. We were behind the ball at how we were looking at crime trends,” he said.

“Now when we gather information it is broken down in broad categories like crime against the person, murder, armed robbery, rape and incest. We will not just take these categories, including crimes against property, housebreaking and stolen vehicles, and break them down into major and minor depending on what is involved and the specifics of the case. We have to further break down the statistics. But all of the information will be released to the media. We aren’t hiding anything. We are just grouping it differently, breaking them down into sub categories so you will be able to see everything better.”

Mr Bell also said that crime is decreasing mainly because of Urban Renewal 2.0 and Swift Justice.

“Crime is down,” he said. “The murder rate is down. This shows that Urban Renewal 2.0 is working. We are giving the people hope and identifying and tackling the problem head on. We have also increased our saturation patrols. Swift Justice is also a factor. We just recently arrested and locked up a man who is a notorious criminal and since he and his cronies have been behind bars gang activity has slowed down considerably. The media and the church have also played a major role.”

Opposition Leader Dr Hubert Minnis said the new crime statistics would not be a true reflection of the crime problem in the country.