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Plainclothes, traffic cops deployed as investigators battle robberies of bank customers
Crime Chief, Paul Williams
The cooperation of both the Guyana Police Force and the banks are required to address the high number of robberies of persons conducting transactions at banks.
Crime Chief Paul Williams, in an interview with the Department of Public Information (DPI), said: “What we need is a joint approach in terms of dealing with this matter. I’m appealing to the banks, for them to carry out some amount of analysis within their daily operations. There are so many things the banks can do from an analysis. That will really help us to see if there is any inside dealing or inside information. This can assist us in terms of dealing with the situation,” Williams explained.
The Crime Chief pointed the measure the police have since implemented towards addressing the issue whilst highlighting the fact that the banks can also utilise their resources to assist.
“We have policemen in plainclothes outside the bank. We are sending out traffic ranks to ensure persons who are not authorised to operate vehicles and so forth, are not to be there. We are putting little measures in place.”
Regarding the manner in which information about persons’ transactions is being passed on to the perpetrators, Williams said the banks can play and instrumental role in deterring this.
“The bank needs to carry out a review of the CCTV within the bank itself. See how many persons frequent the bank; whether they are doing transactions or sitting idly. Follow this daily; see how many persons are being robbed. Check to see if they would’ve dealt with a specific teller, you know. There is so much analysis that can be done in order for us to deal with this situation,” Williams further explained.
The Crime Chief noted that despite some police successes, perpetrators have become more observant and have employed ways to avoid ranks. For example, he said they do not make immediate attempts to rob but trail the victims to their homes instead.
Williams believes that it is crucial that the banks follow the information as it relates to who has been robbed, which bank the person conducted business and how many persons are being robbed within a certain period of time from the bank. This, he believes, along with the banks’ cooperation with the police force, will ensure efficiency in addressing the matter.
In recent months, there has been an escalation of persons being trailed, robbed and even shot from the banks.
Recently, a fisherman lost more than $7M while a CARICOM official was shot after being trailed from an East Coast bank.
There has been little success in cracking the gangs involved.
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