Police figures confirm fewer robberies but more murders

Jul 12, 2015 News

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As was expected, the Guyana Police Force has released figures that confirm an increase in criminal activities from the beginning of this year to June month end, with murders up to last monthend showing a sharp rise of

14 per cent, when compared with the same period last year.
The figures show that there were a total of 79 murders for the period under review, 10 more than for the same period in 2014.
Execution style murders made the biggest jump,  accounting for six of the murders this year against two last year.
There were also significant increases in disorderly type murders and murders of unknown causes, increasing by 81 and 33 per cent respectively.
Murders committed during robberies although relatively high at 13, remain on par with the June month end figure of 2014.
Investigators in ‘A’ Division, (Georgetown-East Bank Demerara) have been doing the most work so far, investigating 29 of the 79 murders in the country.
They were followed by their counterparts on the East Coast Demerara who have investigated 14 murders so far and Berbice who saw 13 murders committed in the Division.
The interior has seen 11 unlawful killings so far with four murders each occurring in Linden and its environs and the West Coast Demerara. The usually quiet Essequibo Coast has also seen four murders so far.
Up to last evening the police had recorded one more murder, bringing the total so far for the year to 80.
But despite the high murder rate, police investigators have been able to crack a number of the cases, bringing several perpetrators to court.
Overall the Guyana Police Force recorded a nine percent increase in serious crimes at the end of June 2015 in comparison to the same period in 2014.
Apart from the murders, the serious crimes policed by the force are robbery under arms, robbery with violence, robbery with aggravation, larceny from the person, Break and Enter and Larceny, Burglary, Rape, and Kidnapping.
According to the police, at the end of June 2015, robbery under arms overall has decreased by six percent in comparison to the same period in 2014.
The statistics indicate a decrease of nine percent in the number of armed robberies involving the use of firearms; while the number of armed robberies where instruments other than firearms were used by the perpetrators is almost similar to the figure for last year.
The number of rape reports went up by a whopping 74 percent, with 207 reports at the end of June this year compared to 119 for the same period last year.
Break and Enter and Larceny and Burglary also showed an increase.
Unto the end of June this year, 61 illegal firearms have been recovered by the police comprising one sub-machine gun, 35 pistols, 14 revolvers, four shotguns, six rifles and one pen-gun.
The current crime situation forced President David Granger to convene an emergency meeting, with his top security officials and some members of his cabinet including, Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo and Minister of State, Joseph Harmon.
The meeting culminated with government trotting out an elaborate plan to halt the current spate, which coincided with the election of the new coalition government in May.
The plan includes increased resources for the police force, to enhance its ground, air and river response capabilities.
Speaking at a post-Cabinet briefing on Wednesday, Minister of State Joseph Harmon, said that the plan will be fleshed out and fine tuned with the Commissioner of Police to ensure that citizens are safe, and that the criminals and the criminal underworld as well as the intellectual authors of criminal activities understand that the coalition government has a very strong resolve to root crime wherever it exists in Guyana.
Harmon said that the government has given a commitment to the Guyana Police Force that it will put all of the assets of the state at its disposal to ensure that wherever criminal activity exists, it will be dealt with most viciously.
Apart from the proposed plans to deal with the situation, Public Security Minister Ramjattan has already implemented new measures, including a 2:00 hours curfew for nightspots and bars, as well as deploying vehicles that were earmarked for Community Policing Groups to the Police Force to bolster their fleet of patrol vehicles.
“We’ve given the police the undertaking that we are prepared to increase the allocation to the force so that we will have the cameras not just concentrated in one area but all across the country to aid in the fight against criminal activity,” Harmon assured, adding that the networking of police station all across the country will also be a feature.
“We are sending a very clear signal to all and sundry that wherever the intelligence leads us we are going to follow it and there will be no sacred cows where this matter is concerned,” Harmon declared.
Incidentally no mention was made of the police SWAT unit, a group of highly trained ranks who are not being put to use.

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