Haiti Among the Safest Destinations in the Americas

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti /PRNewswire/ -- Haiti is one of the safest destinations; not just in the Caribbean, but throughout all the Americas. This is the general finding of recent studies on crime in the region which show that Haiti has the lowest rate of violent deaths in comparison to previous years. In 2012, according to the UNODC, Haiti's violent death rate of 6.9 out of every hundred thousand Haitians is among the lowest rates in the Americas, and the same as Long Beach, California. This is mainly attributable to a strong focus on the strengthening and modernization of its security forces. Among other high impact measures, the government of Haiti kept its pledge to increase the size of its National Police by 50%, allowing them to fight crime more effectively. Besides increasing the size of its force, the Haitian National Police (HNP) is counting on innovative technologies to track down criminals. For example, they were able to dismantle the largest kidnapping ring in the country with the help of advanced software designed by a Haitian official trained at Westpoint --a program so effective, it has sparked the interest of the HNP's foreign advisers.