CRIME Chief Wendell Blanhum yesterday told media operatives and senior police officers that crime in this country is not spiralling out of control as is being suggested in one section of the local media.Senior Superintendent Blanhum was at the time speaking at the annual Guyana Police Force presentation of its Christmas Policing Programme held at the Officers Training College.

Since the announcement of the election results in May this year, the Guyana Times newspaper has been constantly reporting that crime has been spiralling out of control, citing reports of both minor and major crimes.
The Crime Chief did not name any media house in debunking the assertion that crime is spiralling out of control.
However, the facts cited by Blanhum point to the Guyana Times newspaper as being deliberately engaged in attempting to make the Guyana Police Force look bad and incapable of addressing the crime situation.
Meanwhile, according to the facts provided to the media yesterday, the crime situation in the country over the last five years has not been much different from what obtains at present but statistics now indicate a lower crime rate compared to selected periods previously, the Crime Chief noted.
He said that it was unfair for a section of the media to be attempting to compare the present crime situation with what obtained during the 2002 period.
Additionally the Crime Chief also presented a crime analysis after the elections of 2006, 2011 and 2015 which again showed that nothing much has been different.
“I mentioned that when I took over the office of Crime Chief in June of this year we were at a 13 per cent increase of serious crimes and the figure fluctuated, historically if you’re at the period between June, July and August,” the Crime Chief said.
Blanhum noted that the fluctuation was historical given the time of the year when there is increased commercial activities such as regional and international shows that are held locally and persons with criminal intent use that period to commit unlawful activities.
Meanwhile, the Crime Chief acknowledged that at present the Guyana Police Force is addressing an eight percent increase in serious crimes which is down from 13 per cent. In this category are offences such as robbery with violence, larceny from the person, rape, burglary, armed break and enter and larceny.
He stressed that when the situation is examined all is not lost considering where the significant increases were coming from.
According to Blanhum, had the police not been able to control what was happening they would have been at a twenty percent increase by now. He is optimistic that by the end of the Christmas Security arrangement, there should be just a 0.2 per cent increase in serious crimes.
“It goes to tell you that all these headlines that we were bombarded with that crime is spiralling out of control and crime is uncontrollable and nothing is being done and we lack the capacity to effectively deal with serious offenses is nothing short of being absurd,” Blanhum declared.
He told the gathering also that from evidence gathered, the police at ‘A’ Division have accounted for a large percentage of the serious offences but that is expected with the high level of economic activities in the division.
Meanwhile, the police at Essequibo and Linden districts recorded the least amount of crimes in terms of percentage. Those divisions are headed by Commanders Kevin Adonis and Calvin Brutus respectively.

By Leroy Smith