Police Commander targeting youths at community level to reduce crime

May 07, 2022 News

– to provide environment to foster skills training

Kaieteur News – Targeting youths for skills training in communities that fall under the purview of Region Four – A Division is a priority for Regional Division Commander, Simon McBean. The Commander is of the firm conviction that such an approach would go a far way in keeping them from being ensnared by a life of crime.

Commander of Regional Division Four, Simon McBean

Speaking on this approach to crime fighting recently, McBean said his division is already targeting the youths mainly from ages nine to 24. To realize this skills training goal, he said there are currently seven youth groups that are working along with the police force. The intention, he related, is to create scout groups in order to direct the youths away from criminal activities.
McBean made this disclosure while being interviewed on April 28, 2022 by Deputy Director of the Force’s Communication Unit, Stan Gouveia.
According to him, in order to stop the youths from turning to crime, the division is creating a skills database within the communities. With a joint effort from the headquarters, the Commissioner and invested stakeholders, the objective McBean said, is to ascertain what are the skills lacking within the community and provide an environment to foster the inculcation of those skills so that they can make a valuable contribution to society.
In order to ease the high crime rate in the “hot areas” of Region 4A, the Regional Division Commander, highlighted that he is in full support of the crime fighting approach that sees the Guyana Police Force (GPF) working closely with community groups. The commander made it clear that the goal of Mr. Clifton Hicken, the Acting Ccommissioner to engage citizens to assist with the fight against crime has his full support. He said, “We cannot afford this as a police force, to work without a partnership with the communities.”
He concurred that such a direction has catered to crime reduction since the 1980s, and it is with this in mind, that the police force is operating in high-risk areas to fight crime. The Commander also underscored the importance of cooperation with communities as well as with government and the private sector, as, according to him, working with these will be advantageous when analysing and solving the problems in communities that are opposed to having the police force operating in isolation.
He mentioned as well that all communities visited thus far have been welcoming to the force’s crime fighting approach.