EIGHT persons have been charged in relations to the 14 murders that have occurred this year so far, police said on Thursday in a statement.Giving its periodic crime statistics, the Guyana Police Force said that it has managed to arrest the crime situation here, with a six percent decrease in serious crimes for the month of January; this is comparison to the corresponding period last year.

Among the serious crimes policed by the Force are murder, robbery under arms, robbery with violence, robbery with aggravation, larceny from the person, break and enter and larceny, burglary, rape, and kidnapping.
In a statement the police said that at the end of January 2016, the Guyana Police Force recorded a 6% decrease in serious crimes in comparison to the same period in 2015. This can be attributed to a number of factors, including the higher level of networking and activities of the Joint Services under “Operation Dragnet,” which was launched on December 01, 2015; along with capacity building of the Police Force under the five-point strategy to deal with crime, which was outlined by His Excellency President David Granger, MSS. This situation has seen an increase in manpower and training in the Criminal Investigation Department and the increased deployment of ranks in the Police “F” Division; intelligence-led policing and improved cooperation from the public.

Additionally, the police said a SWAT team, along with ranks of the Major Crimes Unit of the Criminal Investigation Department, has been dispatched to “B” Division (Berbice), in order to strengthen policing activities in the Division. During the period, a total of 14 murders were recorded at the end of January 2016, in comparison to 13 murders at the end of January 2015, an increase of 8%. Of the 14 murders in January this year five were committed during robberies, three were domestic related and six were of the disorderly type.

Police said that diligent investigations have led to a number of persons being arrested and charged in eight of the 14 incidents of murder in January this year, while investigations are continuing into the others. At the end of January 2016 robbery under arms overall, has increased by 5% in comparison to the same period in 2015. However, the statistics indicate a decrease of 13% in the number of armed robberies, involving the use of firearms; while there was a 50% increase in relation to the number of armed robberies where instruments other than firearms were used by the perpetrators.

The statistics have revealed that there has been an increase of 4% in the number of reports of rape, with 26 reports at the end of January this year compared to 25 for the same period last year.
Break and enter, larceny, and burglary have shown an overall decrease of 8%. At the end of January this year, a total of 6 illegal firearms have been recovered by the police, comprising 4 pistols and 2 revolvers. This compares to a total of 3 illegal firearms that were recovered unto this time last year.