Latest update January 9th, 2025 4:10 AM
Latest News
- Gov’t fearful of what investigation of lopsided oil contract would reveal- Chris Ram
- Hess hopes govt. 7th oil project will be approved by April
- ‘Ceasefire, captives deal in Gaza ‘very close’—Blinken
- Guyana protests as Venezuela plans to elect governor for Essequibo
- Woman dies while relaxing in car with boyfriend
Police credit citizens’ cooperation for reduction in crime
The Guyana Police Force is attributing the continued overall decline in serious crimes to improved
Crime Chief Seelall Persaud
police vigilance coupled with the increasing assistance from members of the public and the various Community Policing Groups.
The Force recently announced that there was a 10 percent decrease in reports of serious crimes for the period January to April this year when compared to the same period in 2011.
“The total number of reports of serious crimes made by April 30 this year was 1268 compared to 1404 at the end of April last year. Some of the offences monitored are murder, robbery under arms, robbery with violence, larceny from the person, break and enter and larceny, burglary, rape and kidnapping.”
While armed robbery showed a 19 percent increase, it was the significant decline in activities such as break and enter and larceny that has brought the overall figure down.
Crime Chief Seelall Persaud yesterday explained that the vigilance of the police is mainly responsible for the drop in break and enter and larceny.
“We are processing our crime scenes more now; we are getting fingerprints and we are able to make more arrests and getting more prosecution. Break and enter has regulars and we have been able to put most of them in jail,”
According to the Crime Chief, members of the public have also been playing their part by become more aware of their security responsibility.
“There is a general awareness by members of the public in terms of putting in security at their premises.”
Another area where the police have tightened the screws to bring the crime rate down is in the country’s interior locations, where criminal activity was threatening to get out of hand.
This was one of the major topics for discussion at this year’s Police Officers’ Conference in February.
Since then there has been increased roving patrols in the interior facilitated by improved mobility with the acquisition of All Terrain Vehicles, along with assistance from the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission and private security firms operating in the mining districts.
“We have also been getting help from the mining community; they have been assisting us with boats whenever we need to go into certain areas,” another senior police official informed.
While still in its developing stage, intelligence gathering and crime analysis is also significant.
This area was part of the government’s response to address the crime problem.
The Guyana Police Force was previously limited to taking an incident-driven, reactive approach.
In particular, lack of a system to collect crime and violence data and integrate forensic medicine, crime investigation, and police actions, made it impossible for the force to analyze crime and violence patterns, incidents, problems; and causes.
As such, it did not have the information required to formulate a comprehensive national policy on crime and violence prevention.
The force also lacked any systematic engagement with local groups for sharing information and better targeting enforcement efforts. As a result, its personnel did not work in partnership with communities in broader social development and crime prevention efforts seeking to address the root causes of crime.
This led to the implementation of the Citizens Security Programme, with a major component being the Integrated Crime Information System (ICIS).
According to the police, this feature has enabled them to assess crime trends, allowing them to zero in on specific areas of criminal activity.
“Each (police) Division now has an intelligence unit, and using this system, we are now able to see where there is heightened criminal activity, time and modus operandi, and we could now make timely interventions,” a senior police source explained.
However, Crime Chief Persaud said that this phase of the police intelligence development is still a work in progress.
“People are being trained and we are now introducing an approach that will see more accountability. We have to reinforce good practice.”
Training is being provided to analyze patterns of incidents and identify sustainable solutions. These activities are being supported by the ICIS and capacity building in criminal investigations, information management, human rights, and strengthened accountability.
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
Jagdeo’s policies were a disaster
Peeping Tom… Kaieteur News- Bharrat Jagdeo’s proclamation of his party’s approach to reducing income inequality... more
Forget Begging Rich Nations: Caribbean Countries Should Act to Save Themselves
By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News- It has long been evident that the world’s richest nations, especially those responsible... more
Weekend Cartoon
