What is the Bahamas Government's benchmark for murder?

by Sidney Sweeting, DDS (http://www.weblogbahamas.com)

Bahamians have reached the point that the main topic of conversation is crime and particularly the number of murders. As of August 22, 2009 there were 53 murders recorded for the year.

Finally, the Minister of National Security Tommy Turnquest announced that the Royal Bahamas Police Force has launched a new crime reduction strategy (the Tribune August 29/2009) which will target "prolific offenders" and "criminal hot spots".

This raises the question of whether this is another public relations exercise or did it have to reach the point where members of the public are constantly looking over their shoulders or did the rate of murders, rapes and robberies have to pass a certain benchmark before anything is done or has it taken this long to learn who the offenders are and the location of the hot spots?