Unsolved crimes have serious consequences
–Ranks failing to offer evidence in court totally unacceptable

COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF of the Armed Forces, President Donald Ramotar yesterday challenged the police to up their game to tackle the high incidents of unsolved crimes and low rates of successful prosecutions in the courts.
The President was delivering the feature address at the Annual Police Officers’ Conference at Eve Leary in Georgetown where he highlighted his administration’s concern over the number of unsolved crimes and low rates of

conviction, all of which have serious implications.
President Ramotar made it clear that if the police fail to get a grip of the situation, there is a high possibility that Guyana could begin to experience an “avalanche of criminal activities”.

The Head of State made reference to two recent much-debated cases in which a shooting at Bourda was captured on surveillance tape but the shooter, cricketer Carlyle Barton, later walked away from court a free man.
In the second case, businessman Rondy Jagdeo had a motorcycle waiting outside the court for him, in anticipation of being set free. These cases were thrown out because of the lack of proper prosecution on the part of the police and their inability to get witnesses to show up in court. Mr. Ramotar stated that it is his hope that these issues would be addressed during the conference.

“It is really heartrending to see persons who have been shown on national television, shooting a person, walking away free from the court or another person who is accused of murder has a motorcycle waiting in anticipation probably knowing before hand what would be the outcome,” Ramotar observed.
However, the President did point out that he is cognisant of the fact that the police are not the only ones to be blamed for the present situation and discussions have been had with the Legal Affairs Minister on the matter.
The President noted that some of the reasons which are being largely regarded as the contributing factors to the problem include poor preparation of cases by the prosecution, failing to secure the attendance of material witnesses in court, not applying for witness summons for them to appear in court, discrepancies in evidence between police written and oral statements, and police officers not attending court to give evidence.

TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE
The Head of State told the senior officers that among the reasons, he regarded the latter one as totally unacceptable. He stated that the government has been facilitating substantial training for police prosecutors and this trend would continue but there needs to be evidence of improvement in the

prosecution of cases and greater value for money.
The police force was urged to put a stop to developments such as the cases cited and according to Ramotar, each person, including those in the police force and the legal arena, must play their part.
The issue of corruption was also highlighted by Ramotar who said that the core of the force needs to take strong measures against corruption in and out of the force since this is very important to the stability of the force as well as the society.

INTEGRITY TESTS
He reiterated that the government will from time to time conduct integrity tests on persons who are being appointed to senior positions in the Guyana Police Force and in any new organization, something which is already in existence in some organizations.
Ramotar told the officers that they must ensure that the Force, which is empowered to protect citizens from criminals, is itself free from such elements.
At the conference Ramotar also spoke about the fight against drugs, cooperation among the disciplined forces, regional cooperation, the importance of security in a democratic society, new demands on police officers, training, gangs, complacency and community policing.
The police conference which wraps up tomorrow is being held under the theme: “Continuing Modernization with special focus on developing public trust and capacity building through partnership”.