POLICE Commissioner (ag), Seelall Persaud reported on Friday that violence and illegal activities in the Georgetown ward of Albouystown have significantly been reduced since the police implemented its Project Impact Albouystown.

He added that besides violence being significantly reduced by nine percent in that ward, people who live in that community are no longer a bother to persons residing in other communities, as had previously obtained.

Moreover, Persaud told his media audience that many Albuoystown youths who were never gainfully occupied are now enrolled in several of the police initiatives within the community, such as a block making programme, cookery classes and cosmetology courses.

But even as Police Commissioner (ag), Seelall Persaud pointed to those cases of police success in that troubled community, he was quick to inform that it is still quite too early for an overall and general assessment of the impact of Project Impact Albuoystown on the community, since several considerations have to be factored into the equation.

The Force has thus far recorded several positives coming out of the initiative of Project Impact Albouystown, but at the moment all the real tangible rewards of the project cannot really be seen considering that it is still too early in the programme.
Commissioner Persaud also mentioned the many facilities the police are either constructing or upgrading so that children in various communities can be better occupied during their spare time.

He spoke specifically to sporting facilities in Albuoystown and Agricola, and to the skills training complex in Rosemary Lane (Tiger Bay).

Among the other successes pointed to in the work the police are doing in Albouystown is the coming on board of several professionals, who have undertaken to sponsor children and their school needs in its entirety. There are also feeding programmes to which the police are contributing.

The Top Cop also mentioned the bringing together of all agencies which work with children in the Police West Demerara Area by Commander Ian Amsterdam. That, too, has been lauded as successful and gaining momentum.

This publication, which has been covering the police community activities extensively, has had first-hand experience of persons throwing their support behind the new approach the police have adopted both as part of their corporate responsibility and in furtherance of crime fighting.

Asked about the very troubling areas of Sophia, Commissioner Persaud said that the community has not been off the police radar, but he pointed out that several issues and areas have to be addressed logistically before the police can move into the area with carefully crafted programmes.

He said that discussions have been ongoing about the rolling out of a police community engagement in the Sophia area, and persons who reside in the various fields have been approaching the police with similar requests.

The Commissioner said that among the things being looked at before the rolling out of any programme in that community is the very critical issue of resource requirements. Nevertheless, the police do see the need to get into the community, Persaud admitted.
Written By Leroy Smith