Policing groups undertake community enhancement activities

Nov 18, 2009 News

Community policing is not only about arresting people, it’s also about making the environment less conducive to criminal activities.

Members of the Community Policing Groups during their enhancement campaign at the Haslington New Housing Scheme playfield.

This is the theory adopted by the Belfield, Victoria, Nabaclis, Golden Grove and Haslington Community Policing Groups on the East Coast of Demerara.
On Sunday last, the groups came together for a community enhancement project which saw them clearing the bushes in the New Haslington housing scheme.
Abdul Waheed Wickham, Acting Chairman of a merged Community Policing/Development Group in the area, told Kaieteur News that the initiative had its genesis at a recent meeting.
He explained that the project was conceptualised since it was realised that criminal elements often make use of overgrown bushes that abound in the communities to pounce on unsuspecting members of the public.
More than 60 persons participated in the exercise, which according to residents of the Haslington New Scheme, will make a significant difference in terms of the safety of citizens.
The new housing scheme was chosen since it is felt that to deter criminal activities there would be better than having to solve them.
“In all new (housing) schemes you will find people from different communities coming to live. And so the community life is not that much in existence. So we decided to set an example to show the people that all should be involved if you want to see the development of your community,” Wickham explained.
Apart from the exercise, the group cleared the community’s playfield on which they hope to organise fund-raising activities.
Wickham said that Sunday’s exercise is only the first of similar planned gestures.