The crime rate in Nassau has escalated largely due to the manner in which government fails to deal effectively deal with crime and criminals and the tourism industry hides the problem. Harsh fines and sentences and more transparency is needed.
Eventually, the tourism industry will become the target of agencies and countries that take a stand against the dangerous, life threatening environment in the Bahamas.
Money talks and when the tourism industry in the Bahamas suffers, it will be too late to be proactive and get a handle of the two best strategies to curb crime and the death of tourism.
Officials in the Bahamas have a very bad habit of denying the problem of crime. Each tourist victimized by indigenous thugs is told by police that, "this has never happened before." How about not lying to victims of crime? They can simply look it up and find that they were lied to and then do what intelligent people do. Ask themselves why? What do these equivalents of mall cops have to gain by lying?
That kind of deceit deserves the negative press coming from around the world. Nothing will change until the bottom line is severely, adversely affected.
The first step is give the death penalty, not a counterproductive sentences like we saw in the sentencing phases of the murder trial of a US soldier.
At the same time, the government needs to armed decoys, mercenaries if necessary, into the population who shoot to kill. It's not harsh, it's how these criminals learn to take their trade some place else or be buried on boot hill.
Here's one possible scenario of how this will all go terribly out of control for the not too bring people behind this failure to communicate - to thugs and tourists alike.
Once the conspiracy theorists get busy, expect to see the story floated that the crime rate is not uncontrolled, that is very closely controlled and facilitated by the current methods employed by the government and tourism industry. No proof will be needed. It's never needed for conspiracies to get started and perpetuate. However that's not to say proof won't be suggested, such as in government is directly benefitting from the criminal enterprise in the Bahamas as in, the thugs work for them. The tourism industry hides the crime rate to provide a constant supply of easy targets for criminals.

In late December it was pointed out that based on the number of murders being committed some 55 more murders would happen before Elections in May. The number was adjusted to 50 in January after there was 5 additional murders in December. At that time the police were broadcasting that there was a reduction in crime and, at one point the reduction included murder. They later adjusted their statements to say that even though murders had increased, overall crime was down. Today with Elections still some two weeks away, near 50 murders have been committed and, based on the trend, the Bahamas may be set to record another year of record murders. In the range of 150. The disturbing thing is that while the PLP wants to return as the government of the Bahamas, they have put forth no new plan to combat murder and stop the killings of so many young men in this country. The DNA claims they will enforce the death penalty and the FNM claims they have a comprehensive plan to combat crime and especially murder. The state of Arkansas in the USA has scheduled eight executions in 11 days, the first being carried out last night. Three more scheduled for Monday. The reason for the large number of executions is not because a spike in murders or to use the death penalty as a deterrent for murder. Simply the drugs used to carry out death by lethal injection will soon expire and replacement drugs will be extremely difficult to get. Most of the companies have stopped making them. So eight people will be executed, providing there is no stay on their executions, because the drugs used to execute them are about to expire.

Crime down, murder up.

According to the COP ......... murder is not crime, it is a social malady