BETWEEN January 1st to October 31st, 2016 ‘A’ Division (Georgetown/East Bank Demerara) has recorded 64% of all gun robberies, according to statistics revealed Monday by Crime Chief, Wendell Blanhum.

Blanhum was addressing a forum to launch the police Christmas Policing Plan at Eve Leary. According to the statistics this year 383 reported cases of gun robberies occurred on the streets, this figure superseded previous years, 2012 being the lowest with 188 cases. For the same period 41% of the arms seized were pistols while 30% of these guns originated from Brazil and 26% from the United States.

On the issue of solving crimes, Blanhum said the main challenges the police force faces in their operations surround the reluctance of witnesses to attend ID parades and giving statements; insufficient consideration for arrangements in establishment and operations of business, lack of cooperation to facilitate extraction of CCTV crime footage and the poor quality of images retrieved from crime scenes and citizens not securing their homes and buildings properly.

Further, Blanhum added that police corruption, lack of public trust and porous borders also facilitate crimes. Meanwhile, the Crime Chief said the police force has solved a number of cold cases, but perhaps the most impacting of them all, was the murder of David Ramcharran, a little over 17 years ago at Seven Miles, Mahdia.

Thirty-eight year-old miner, Philbert Edwards confessed to murdering Ramcharran on May 03, 1999 reportedly over cigarettes. He also listed several other open cases that the police were able to close and prosecute.

However, statistics show that disorderly and domestic murders have continued to pose a problem. For this year, these two types of murders accounted for half of all the murders in the country. To avoid this, the Force is urging members of the community to be more vigilant and report street and rum shop brawls along with drug yard fights and cases of domestic abuse before they escalate and result in death.