East Berbice sees increase in murder, burglary - decrease in all categories of accidents

East Berbice sees increase in murder, burglary – decrease in all categories of accidents

Jun 05, 2020 News

While there have been several horrific accidents in Berbice for the year 2020, Regional Police Commander, Calvin Brutus, has reported a decrease in all categories of accidents. However, there have been increases in cases of break and enter and murder.

Berbice commander, Calvin Brutus

Enlightening media operatives about the road accident situation, Brutus compared the 2019 and 2020 figures pointing out that there were 10 fatal accidents for this period for both years. In the area of serious accidents, there were 17 for this period in 2019 and 10 thus far for this year, reflecting a decrease of 41 percent. Overall, there have been 55 accidents for the year thus far compared to 81 for last year. According to him, Springlands, Upper Corentyne is an accident prone area. Also, Brutus revealed that an analysis was done by the traffic department in Berbice and the results showed that the two main contributing factors to the accidents were speed and the use of alcohol.
The Regional Commander disclosed too that a decision has been taken to warn operators of agricultural machinery, stressing, “They ought to wash the mud of the cage wheel before coming unto the public and we will be seeking to enforce this from now onwards.”
Meanwhile, Brutus said that as it relates to serious crimes, there has been an increase. In the category of murder, there has been an increase evident by a total of seven in 2019 compared to 10 already this year. Also, for break and enter/larceny, there has been an alarming increase, especially during the curfew period. According to Brutus “that has almost doubled.”
Notably, all forms of robberies have decreased evident by 11 in 2019 compared to seven in 2020, Brutus stated.
He added that the areas of concern for break and enter cases are New Amsterdam and Canje with some arrests made.
“Two individuals were arrested for 19 counts and that is just for the central part of New Amsterdam alone. Then we see the use of juvenile, young persons involved in break and enter…we believe that they are used by adults to perpetrate these acts. We have had reason to arrest a young person, an 11-year-old, for four counts of break and enter and larceny. Many of the stolen articles are sold up the river and some have been recovered during eradication exercises,” the Commander disclosed.
He credited the division’s success to deal with the cases successfully to the use of available technologies.
“We have been making use of the technologies available to us by using the fingerprint matching equipment; we do use crime scene ranks to process the scene and then of course we have been able to solve many of them using electronic means, the CCTV camera, etc. Even though there has been an increase, we have had a lot of success in terms of interdicting and bringing closure to these matters, but some are pending still because of arrangements with the court. We have looked at the flow of information, cordoned and search operations and patrol system with more patrols in troubled areas,” he detailed.
In terms of narcotics, there have been several narcotics eradication exercises with specific targets in the Canje Creek and Berbice River “and this is in relation to assisting Region 10 since it is easier to access from this end,” he said.
Brutus said too, “We had over 32 arrests in narcotics eradication, two boats, two engines seized… among other equipment seized and the destroying of tents. We have had eradication on land and some in cordoned and search operations.”

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