Police Commissioner Shanta Knowles
By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS
Tribune Staff Reporter
lmunnings@tribunemedia.net
POLICE Commissioner Shanta Knowles said rebelliousness is the key factor behind recent cases of runaway children.
“There’s one particular young girl who just did not want to wash dishes, and because of her being scolded, she left home, she ran away,” she said. “We encourage parents to stay strong, to continue to be parents first, but of course, to work with their children to see how best we can get them on the right track.”
Some runaways, she said, “don’t want to listen to their parents, and that is the message that we must get across to our children”.
Speaking on The Rundown, a ZNS talk show with Clint Watson on Monday night, she said technology is helping officials find children.
“When we find or locate these young people, especially those who run away, we realise that there are issues within the home, and it is at that point that we get social services involved or another agency that can offer counselling to the family members to see how best they can resolve their issues in their home before these, especially young girls go missing again,” she said.
The Royal Bahamas Police Force investigated 277 cases of missing persons nationwide in 2024. Of these, 256 cases were solved, with the individuals found safe, while 21 remain under investigation. Among these cases, 28 percent were classified as runaways, 41 percent were due to miscommunication, 16 percent involved individuals with mental illness, six percent remain unknown, three percent involved persons who were arrested, four percent were lost at sea, and two percent were deceased.
There were 188 cases in New Providence, 48 in Grand Bahama, and 24 in the Family Islands. The missing persons included 78 percent Bahamians, eight percent Haitians, one percent Americans, one percent Jamaicans, and 11 percent with unknown nationalities.
Comments
bahamianson 1 month ago
That one is a no brainer. What? Do you a responsible child would do that? Keep stating the obvious, you are brilliant. We need solutions. We need someone whom is going to take the bull by the horn. When the person grabs the bull by the horn, society cries for him/ her to stop. They say to have compassion. The story continues.
ExposedU2C 1 month ago
Crickets from her on what she plans to do about the rampant violent crime.
bahamianson 1 month ago
The irony is this commissioner is too young with what experience, yet appointed by Davis. The 500 people rehired were hired to bring apparent experience, just like the last commissioner whom resigned. What experience are we talking about. We need to fire all of them and more. How many workers do we need at NIB? It has a million workers walking around doing nothing.
Porcupine 1 month ago
More talk, in a place where words mean nothing.
carltonr61 1 month ago
It is great to break down the DATA. Further we could find I'd there is a daddy or a father in the homes. Is the home a single female parent. Are there multiple daddies. Social Services also need to step up and be more forthcoming with DATA so we can see clearly the MARKERS of a troubled non marriage mostly female single parent home. That is the money needs to go on education to assist our adolescents into making choices in life. Instead so much social religious and political law enforcement energies are being directed and spent on .00001 percent marriage rape in the bed after ten children. What about the emotional social rape of damaged toxic single homes.
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