Fighting Crime

Dec 19, 2011 Editorial

One of the surprising features of the just concluded elections campaign was the relative dearth of debate and discussion of crime in the country. Is this because the politicians believe that crime is not such a “big deal” in Guyana?
They might have been briefed by the Crime Chief. This official recently claimed that overall, crime was slightly down last year and that the criminal gangs that had terrorised Guyana in the last decade had been “dismantled”.
In the Crime Chief’s brief briefing, he identified the threats that citizens still face and the consequent challenges that our crime fighting apparatus must overcome.
To assert that our crimes are marginally down from the previous year or years is not saying much when crime in our country has skyrocketed in the last decade. The task for the police is to bring down crime to a point where citizens can walk the streets and not feel threatened. We are far from that goal.
With the mention of “criminal gangs” the Crime Chief touched on a very salient feature in the surge of our crime statistics – especially murders and robberies under arms. He mentioned significantly that the police were keeping under surveillance not only the gang members but their linkages with “local politicians”.
The Crime Chief is confirming what has been persistently denied by politicians – that many of them have been in cahoots with the marauding gangs that committed so many atrocities. The Crime Chief has corroborated the involvement of politicians in criminal violence.
This is a very salient point and it is our expectation that with continued intelligence gathering, some of these politicians will be brought to justice.
This is not to say that the other types of criminal activities do not have to be addressed but with our scarce resources, the police must prioritise its efforts. Political violence poses the existential danger of plunging the country into open warfare from which it might be difficult to salvage a viable society.
The point about “intelligence” bears emphasis because it is key to fighting crime in all its forms and guises. The concept of “intelligence led” policing has gained traction in most of the developed jurisdictions as it has served to pre-empt and lower crimes significantly. The point is that the police cannot simply react to the depredations of criminals but must have a structured intelligence gathering capability so that they are always a step or two in front of their adversaries.
We had been informed that such an intelligence agency has been established – and actually been sited in the Castellani House compound. While obviously the police cannot reveal too many detains of the workings of the agency, we had hoped that some statistics could have made available as to how many crimes it has helped to solve. There were some not unreasonable concerns that the agency might be used more against political opponents than criminals.
In the fight against drugs, the results have been disappointing. It is now accepted by all – including we hope, by the police – that Guyana is a significant player in the transhipment of cocaine from South America to the north – especially the US.
This means that in relation to our economy, revenues from dwarf that from any other legal enterprise. Against this background, the claim that drug interdictions has “increased” significantly rings hollow. Our seizures have been chicken feed compared to the foreign hauls. It is in this area that the increased intelligence capabilities were supposed to deliver its maximum results.
White collar crimes pose another threat that seems to have escaped the police’s radar – and here again the secret of success will have to be intelligence led.
With the increase in computerisation of the records of businesses, for instance, there is the certainty that there are criminals out there that are exploiting the cracks in the security of companies to commit large scale robberies. Is our police force acquiring any capabilities to counter this new threat? Or will be remain transfixed on the small change robberies only?

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