By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

NATIONAL Security Minister Dr Bernard Nottage says he has no reason to doubt the veracity of the Royal Bahamas Police Force’s crime statistics.

Speaking with The Tribune yesterday, Dr Nottage said that the RBPF’s statistics released to the public in January were the result of matters handled by the police.

He was speaking in response to the startling differences – published by this newspaper yesterday – between Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) data and RBPF statistics. Two categories showed clear disparities. They were rapes and the combined numbers of stabbings and shootings compared to the police’s murder records.

In PMH’s rape category there were 147 cases while the police said there were 104. As it concerns attempted murder, authorities said there were only 10, far less than the 519 cases of shootings and stabbings that physicians at PMH took care of.

Dr Nottage said: “I don’t know that PMH has started releasing stats, are they in competition or something. I don’t know what the PMH figures relate to.

“I know that the police figures are respective of matters that the police has dealt with. So I have no reason to dispute the police figures. When I get an opportunity to get an understanding of the Princess Margaret Hospital figures I would be prepared to comment, but at this time I don’t have it.

“We have to actually read what the figures relate to. A lot of times they’re different things.”

On Wednesday both FNM Deputy leader Loretta Butler-Turner and the party’s deputy Chairman Dr Duane Sands spoke out about the differing numbers.

Dr Sands said: “There seems to be a significant difference between the numbers we presented at the hospital and the numbers reported by the government or the police force,” Dr Sands said.

“Now, somebody ought to explain that. Why is it that we have 278 shootings recorded in the records of the Princess Margaret Hospital, not inclusive of Doctors Hospital, not inclusive of the Rand Hospital, yet the police can only account for 170-odd shooting incidents?”

Mrs Butler-Turner further questioned whether officials are not being forthcoming about the statistics.

“Clearly there is a huge discrepancy with what the police are publishing. I don’t want to come out and say they are fudging the stats, but the actuality is that the police are not being up front with the public on crime,” she said.