Quoting statistics…
POLICE Commissioner Henry Greene said efforts have been intensified in the fight against crime and the coverage was fairly good this year.
Speaking last Wednesday at the Guyana Police Force (GPF) Awards Ceremony, on the Tactical Services Unit (TSU), Drill Square, Eve Leary, Georgetown, Greene said he looked at the figures emerging out of the crime fight and observed that, this season, vigilance has increased on the roads through patrols and there is noticeable Police presence in the city. “Despite that, there have been a few incidents of crime, albeit our coverage has been fairly good and I have seen the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security talking about Women of Worth (WoW) but we in the GPF can, justifiably say ‘wow’! in terms of figures so far from January 1 to December 20,” Greene said.

He said, in comparison to 2009, there has been a significant decrease in crime, by 18 per cent and that is worth compliments.

Greene said, obviously nobody will sing their praises and, as such, they have to sell themselves, because some look to criticise and seldom at the good they do, and put them in a corner somewhere in the newspapers, in some small article. But the minute a policeman makes a mistake, it’s a massive, massive thing, which is being blown up all over the country or internationally.

He said, when the GPF does good, it is not blown up to a big thing in the Media.

Quoting statistics, Greene said (as of Dec 22nd) murders are up this year, to 132, an increase of 23 per cent, as compared to 109 for the same period last year.

He said, as it relates to categories, most are disorderly murders, which stand at a total of 47, of the 132 and the next highest category is unknown kind, followed by robberies from which 25 were recorded and 12 were executions.

“So, when we look at the figures, disorderly murders topped. It shows we managed, generally, to keep the lid on crime,” Greene concluded.

He said other types of crime which rose, this year, are robberies 11 per cent, with 39 as compared to 35 in 2009 and burglaries, 149, 13 more than last year.

SERIOUS CRIMES
As for serious crimes, Greene said GPF records show a significant reduction in robbery using firearms, down to 536 as against 613 last year.

The Top Cop said robbery under arms using other instruments is at 196, as compared to 271 last year while robbery with violence is down to 105, in comparison to 169 last year and robbery with aggravation 69, less than the 74 for last year.

He said there were 149 burglaries and 1,157 cases of break and enter, less than the 1,494 last year.

“This has not been because we have lacked but rather our hard work in the GPF and ‘A’ Division crimes are down by 21 per cent, compared to last year, because of the intensification of work coming out of ‘A’ Division and the TSU Anti-Crime Unit with the use of motorcycles and their intelligence gathering,” Greene reported.
He acknowledged that there were a lot of illegal firearms and they amounted to 105, more than the 95 last year and the majority of weapons recovered, 73 are handguns, 35 shotguns, five rifles and two sub-machine guns.

“The illegal firearm trade has been a bugbear for us, the access to weapons by criminal elements in this country has been our most difficult challenge and we find some of the weapons are coming out of the United States, Venezuela and Brazil and, therefore, with our wide waterways, we have to continue to be vigilant, if we are to, effectively, control crimes,” he admitted.
But he said the Police have managed to maintain vigilance in the interior and even sacrificed ranks from offices to patrol the city.
Greene said there have been 100 traffic accidents, more than the 96 last year, with 114 fatalities as against 155 last year.
He credited the use of radar guns and intensified traffic campaigns for reducing the deaths, recognising that speeding and driving under the influence (DUI) remain the leading contributory factors.

About the work of the Traffic Department, he said: “There are elements bent on breaching the law. They put tint on vehicles and imitate signatures of the Minister of Home Affairs, for permission to use it and I urged the Traffic Department to deal with those who continue the unlawful practice. Those who decide to speed and those who continue to use their cellular phones while driving, I say: ‘Bring them in, the law says you cannot drive and use your cell phone except in an emergency.”

He announced that there will also be campaigning against noise nuisance in mini-buses and a team will be riding the buses to look for people who play music and those encouraging it will be charged as well.