The U.S Department of State just released the The Bahamas 2015 Crime and Safety Report. Armed robberies, property theft, and purse snatchings remain the most common crimes perpetrated against tourists.
The report noted that the Bahamian government has not made public comprehensive, updated national crime statistics since July 2013. However, the U.S. report indicates that the murder rate increased in 2014. Crimes, including armed robberies of tourists by perpetrators with knifes or guns, occurred in areas frequented by tourists including areas close to the cruise ship port (Prince George Wharf) and the Cable Beach resort areas. The report stated:
"The U.S. Embassy has received an increase of reports of assaults, including sexual assaults, at residences, hotel rooms, casinos, outside hotels, and on cruise ships. In some sexual assault incidents, the victim had reportedly been drugged. As a result, the Embassy has issued five security messages for 2014 (Spike in Crime, Recent Armed Robberies, Credit Card/ATM Fraud, Jet ski sexual assaults, and Crime during Holiday Season). Police warned women to be extra vigilant after a recent spike in the number of reported sexual assaults in Nassau. In October, a U.S. citizen resident was kidnapped and raped. The water sports rental industry is loosely regulated; in 2014, there were four reported sexual assaults of U.S. citizens, including minors, by jet-ski operators: three incidents on Paradise Island and one on Cable Beach."
You can read the local article in the Bahamas entitled US: Crime Is Now At Critical Level by the Tribune newspaper in Nassau. The Tribune points out that the police commissioner said that (unspecified) serious crimes in the Bahamas decreased in 2014 compared to 2013; however, the US. report says that violent crime increased over the same period.
The Nassau Guardian has an interesting debate in its newspaper issue today regarding this issue. Minister of State for National Defense Keith Bell said that the government of the Bahamas is taking the crime situation very seriously. But FNM Deputy Leader Peter Turnquest said that the Bahamas is not taking the U.S. warnings seriously enough. "The point is that we as a country, that sells itself as a safe, friendly destination for work and for play, this cuts to our economic survival," the Guardian quotes Mr. Turnquest.
Last year, we picked Nassau as the most dangerous cruise destination in the world.
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Photo Credit: Nassau Guardian