REGARDED as the area with the highest crime rate in the country, Region 6 (East Berbice-Corentyne) has been injected with a Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team and a Joint Special Operations Group that comprises GDF and GPF personnel.

Addressing media operatives at the post-Cabinet press briefing yesterday, Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan revealed that the $21B allocated to that ministry to tackle crime has come in handy, as resources were now available for more patrols in the areas mapped as high-crime areas, particularly Region 6, East Berbice/Corentyne.

“We have managed to get the resources for more patrols in those areas that we have mapped as high-crime areas, like Berbice and the Corentyne; and we have sent down a unit from the Joint Special Operations Group that is made up of the army and police officials,” Ramjattan disclosed.

Thus far, an undisclosed number of members from the SWAT team and the Special Crime Unit from ‘A’ Division were sent to tackle the crime situation in those areas in the county of Berbice.

“So we have three bodies of about 12 or 15 men — that’s about 45 more men – that have strengthened Berbice, and we’re also getting lots more senior detective work there, so it is not simply doing the patrols but doing the detective work; and quality detective [work is] apparently paying off,” the minister disclosed.

Following the outcome of the recent murder of 56-year-old cash-crop farmer Pamela Kendall in #45 Village, Corentyne, Ramjattan said the fruitful work of the teams deployed in those areas resulted in Kendall’s husband being arrested.

Ramjattan said attempts are being made to fix perceived defects in the GPF, as senior officers are currently training their juniors so as to make them “better detectives.”

“We are on our way, and I hope [that], given some time, we can see a reduction in crime. It is not a T/20 cricket when it comes to crime reduction, we have to better the institutions and do lots of work with the policemen,” the minister asserted.

This year’s figure is $1.5B more than that which was allocated for the security sector last year under the People’s Progressive Party/Civic government in the 2015 fiscal budget. Out of this $21B, a sum of $11.9 billion will support the operations of the Guyana Police Force, the Guyana Prison Service, Guyana Fire Service, and the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU), while $9.1 billion has been budgeted for the Guyana Defence Force.
(Shivanie Sugrim)