Vexed Bermoothes

The policeman who blogged about Bermuda’s crime statistics has been suspended. He had pointed out that Bermuda’s improved crime statistics in recent years in fact omit several important categories of offense including assault/bodily harm, willful/criminal damage, and drug-related offenses. He then indicated that these offenses have, in fact, seen dramatic increases.

If this is true, the Police crime stats have been childishly manipulated to look good … just like the fantasy stats that come from Tourism, Education, and other important government departments.

As I have blogged in the past, Bermuda needs independent and impartial statistics to judge how our government is performing - you can’t do this if departments are left to “write their own report cards.”

Honest statistics do not start with a conclusion and work back from there. Our Government statistics must be freed from departmental and political interference such that:

• An independent and impartial Stats team chooses what data to compile (ensuring that the process and datasets are not manipulated to suit an agenda).
• The Stats team releases the data, which will be available to the public and the Government at the same time (reducing the urge to pick out the most flattering data and craft a message for public consumption).
• The Stats team independently chooses how to present the data (reducing the spin surrounding statistics - by the time the public have had time to digest the numbers behind the hype, the news has moved on).
• The Stats team chooses the release dates for statistics (reversing the trend of choosing good days for burying bad news).
• A independent watchdog should annually comment on the quality of the statistics and make binding recommendations for improvement.

All of the above are best practices already used in other countries.