Home Affairs Minister denies lack of public trust in Police

Aug 16, 2023 News

Kaieteur News – Minister of Home Affairs, Robeson Benn has denied that the public lacks trust in the Guyana Police Force (GPF).

In an exclusive interview on the sidelines of an event last week, the Minister said that, “I disagree that there is a prevailing lack of trust, I think the public is also well aware of the challenges that the Police Force has in relation to being given timely actionable intelligence.”

Benn said too that the many villagers are aware of the crimes in their communities and often time react in a “dysfunctional” manner when handling the situation.

“This relates to crime, violence particularly, domestic violence in relation to crime is what we called disorderly behaviour, drinking and smoking, those other things, after which people could get into arguments and they don’t separate themselves from situation which can result in violence,” the minister added.

To this end, the Minister told Kaieteur News that statistics show that most crimes stem from drinking and smoking or quarreling and carrying a knife, which is termed “disorderly crime”.

Minister of Home Affairs, Robeson Benn

He conceded that the GPF must “up” its efforts in relation to the discovery of guns even though the Force has been successful in this regard.

The Minister’s statements come on the heels of a recent statement by the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), the largest private sector body in the country that complained about the “lax” approach to crime. The body said, “The GCCI views the decline in official statistics as demonstrative of a loss in confidence in the GPF and reflective of an underreporting in criminal perpetration.”

Moreover, the United States Embassy just last month issued a travel advisory, warning of the rampant crime in Guyana and its lack of resources to suppress same.

Benn said he believes that the Embassy’s stance was as a result of specific incidents in the Capital City that involved a citizen of the US.

He was keen to note that the GPF has taken appropriate measures with the private sector to support security measures that they can take at their business places to protect against crimes.

Meanwhile, as it relates to specific measures being taken by government to address crime, the Minister explained, “In addition to the Police receiving actionable Intel well ahead to respond, we have the new vehicles which we are putting into operation.”

Moreover, he said the GPF is engaged in activities to boost its capacity through seminars.

“We are also appealing to people to be more aware, to be more discerning in terms of what they do and where they do it and in their response to disputes; we also notice more road rages and quarreling in communities and people gathering to watch a fight and taking videos,” he noted.

Guyana’s Acting Commissioner of Police, Clifton Hicken during the Police Force’s 184th Anniversary Awards ceremony told ranks that that they should give themselves a round of applause for reducing serious crimes in the country.

Hicken said, “…we have some successes compared to previous years some of those successes for 2022 to date include but not limited to an overall reduction in serious crimes by 12.6 percent. I think you deserve a round of applause for that.”

He noted that with the exception of murder- which increased by 37 percent- reaching 85 as compared with 62 during the same period last year, all categories of serious crimes are “at a negative”.

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