UDP Accuses Police Top Brass of Underreporting Murders

U.D.P. Chairman and former Minister of National Security Mike Peyrefitte didn’t hold back in his remarks on the state of public safety. He delivered strong blows to Commissioner of Police Chester Williams and Minister of Home Affairs Kareem Musa, once again demanding their resignation. Peyrefitte accused them of underreporting murder statistics and giving the public a false sense of security.

 

Michael Peyrefitte, Former Minister of National Security

“Let me address the issue of underreporting within the police department. The most alarming and heart breaking one is the underreporting of murder stats. The police department recently released a report siting eighty-nine murders for 2024, yet when we examine the actual data and the records we have access to and have been given access to, our research shows there have been ninety-seven murders, not including ten additional deaths that bear all the hallmarks of murder, but which was prematurely and suspiciously classified as mere death investigations. A per capta of twenty-four plus murder per hundred thousand is not an insignificant  increase from 2023 when it was twenty-one per one hundred thousand. This discrepancy is not just a minor clerical error, ti is a serious issue. The very trust that we as a community place in our law enforcement agencies in being undermined. The manipulated figures do not only serve to obscure the reality of violence our streets, but they also deprive the public of the knowledge necessary to demand real action.”