WITH crime on an upward spiral, the Administration has responded to growing concern from the citizenry, outlining a five-prong approach to identify the source and break the back of criminal activities in the country.On Tuesday, President David Granger, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo and National Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan met with the top brass of the Guyana Defence Force and the Guyana Police Force to tackle the upsurge.
The issue also dominated Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. Addressing the media at his weekly post-Cabinet briefing yesterday, Minister of State Joseph Harmon said the President presented a draft strategy which will be refined by Minister Ramjattan, working closely with Police Commissioner Seelall Persaud.
The aim of the strategy is to ensure the safety of the citizenry and to send a very strong message to the criminal underworld and the intellectual authors of criminal activities that their schemes will be decimated.
“This Government has a very strong resolve to root out crime wherever it exists,” Harmon, a former senior Army officer, sternly warned.
The Administration has already given full commitment to the Guyana Police Force that it will put all assets at the State’s disposal to ensure a safe society.
The fight, he said, will involve both overt and covert operations.
The Minister told journalists that the first of the multi-prong approach will entail the police identifying criminal activities in Guyana’s 10 Administrative Regions, determining where these acts are committed, and deciding on a national response strategy.
Guyana shares a long and porous border with countries that are producers of small arms.
BORDER CONTROL
“Therefore, our strategy will include border control activities as well as activities including the Guyana Revenue Authority, in relation to the way in which goods and services are imported into the country,” the Minister of State said.
He also noted that attention will be paid to the use of instruments that are available to the revenue body.
The second element of the plan focuses on police organisation and training. More policemen will be on the streets, Minister Harmon said.
“So there is a clear direction to the police that we have to put more policemen on patrol and to remove them out of the offices where they are engaged in what is known as non-core functions…”
The deployment of the Police Force, the time it takes to respond to complaints of citizens and the operations of the 911 facility, the Minister said, will all be part of the strategy to take the oxygen out of the criminal enterprise.
Thirdly, there will be zero-tolerance on the use of illegal firearms.
In the fourth component, the Government gives a clear undertaking to the Guyana Police Force that it will provide the wherewithal for them to go after criminal activities where ever they occur.
“That means that the police (will have the) ability to go up in the air, to utilise aircraft, helicopters, to actually overlook certain terrain. This does not have to do only with the land, but also the acts of piracy on the high seas, and the strategy will also deal with the utilisation of these assets to give the police early warning capability.
“The use and resuscitation of the police marine wing to give them greater flexibility and greater access to inland waterways is an important feature of the strategy; the use of animals, of horses, of dogs to go after criminals will also be a part of that strategy,” Harmon said.
COMMUNICATION
The final component of the plan focuses on improvement of communication, utilising the Internet and access to close circuit television cameras across the country.
“We have given the police the undertaking that we are prepared to increase the allocation to the force so that we can have these cameras not just concentrated in one area, but all across the country,” the Minister of State reported.
To also aid in the crime fight, there will be a networking of police stations across the country. These stations will be equipped to have access to the Internet and they will be linked with the Division Commanders’ Office and with Central Police Headquarters.
Harmon strongly emphasised that there will be no place for criminals, noting that every tool at the disposal of the State will be utilised to crush their enterprises.
“We will go after them relentlessly with every tool, asset of the State, and the criminals and their handlers will understand that the State will not sit idly by and allow them to run riot on the streets of this country. We are sending a very clear signal, a very clear message to all and sundry that wherever the intelligence lead takes us, we are going to follow it, and there will be no sacred cows where this matter is concerned.”
In the bid to dismantle the criminal underworld, the Administration has a plus in the sense that it boasts of many officials who are security experts.
On that note, Minister Harmon contended that with the exception of bicycle thieves, there is a linkage behind serious crimes, and the Administration will not only look at the symptoms of crime, but more importantly the source of it.
“You cannot be fighting gun crimes in the streets if you don’t know where the gun is coming from, because all you will be doing is dealing with symptoms; but there is a bigger issue which you have to deal with a as a nation.
“A person who can go into a community and perform certain acts of criminal violence and just get away, walk away or drive away, must have some person or element behind him. Who is providing the getaway car? Who is providing the access to them to do these things? In very many cases, when you look at serious violent crimes, in particular gun crimes, there is a linkage backward and it is really getting to the backward linkage that helps you to deal with not just one incident, but several incidents that would have taken place,” the Minister of State pointed out.

By Tajeram Mohabir