Above: Bay Street in Nassau (CJ Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Serious crimes in the Bahamas have fallen by 14 percent over the first two months of 2013, according to Minister of National Security Dr Bernard Nottage.

This also includes a 24 percent decrease in murders in the country, he said, accompanied by a 16 percent drop in crimes against property.

Nottage, who said the end of 2012 had seen a similar reduction, said the decrease was the result of new measures implemented by the Royal Bahamas Police Force, including an emphasis on intelligence-gathering.

“We have been seeing good results because of our intelligence-led initiatives,” he said. “Our officers are better trained and are deployed on a daily basis to seek out sources of information, which allows us to target crime hotspots, prolific offenders and sundry criminal targets.”

But he said there were still “far too many crimes being committed in New Providence by young adult males.”

“The majority of these perpetrators are repeat offender who seem committed to a life of crime and who have no regard, it appears, for themselves or anywhere else,” he said.