A few days ago, a journalist from one of the respected daily newspapers wrote with a touch of glee, “Guyana is in the throes of another crime wave and like most waves, it’s building up slowly as it moves towards the Christmas Season…to crush with fury on a hapless population.”
The scenario imagined by that journalist did not factor in the realities of the Police Force and the population quietly taking their own protective measures.
The Police Force has quietly been doing the necessary training and business people who may have to handle large sums of cash have tightened their security and surveillance. The bandits and robbers are beginning to feel and realize that the downtown business areas are becoming off-limits. Most of the crime now occurs in fairly isolated residences or smaller business places.

On Monday 14th August, Assistant Commissioner Ramnarine had called a meeting at the Officers Mess which would involve various organizations and a wide spread of individuals to allow a much wider cross-section of citizens to participate in the Christmas protection of life and property.
Citizens are cooperating and there is more commitment than before. Indeed, there seems to be a growing enthusiasm in people feeling they are helping to protect society.
What are some of the ways in which the Police are preparing themselves for the coming holiday season and beyond? In the first place, keener study is being made of the techniques of the bandits. Such may allow the Police to forestall the bandits and may lead to the bandits being outwitted. Such training should be able to seep down to the Community Policing groups countrywide.
Then there is the more ubiquitous presence of the Police. When the Police are seen visibly patrolling the streets or in the villages, this acts as a deterrent to crime. As we approach the Christmas season, there is already building up a greater Police presence in the business areas.

The Police are also beginning to use modern technology with satisfactory results. Some of these, we understand, have helped in the apprehension of criminals.
And lastly, there is the issue of intelligence gathering. This area of activity is absolutely vital and needs continuous development. If there is vibrant and reliable intelligence, the Police Force would be much more impacting.
At the moment, the Police Force has had a bad press and there has been some quite high-profile crimes, mostly break-and-enter and invasion of homes by gunmen, to the extent where President Granger himself has had to make a statement on Thursday 10th August.
In his statement, President Granger was wide-ranging. He mentioned that there were some very unsuitable elements in the Force who needed to be purged. Such elements, at some time or other, may have had some involvement in criminality.

He also touched on tiffs and quarrels in the Force which were projected into the public domain. Some of these did not help the image of the Force and in some ways weakened it. In reality, such tiffs were not of much importance and many of them were storms in a teapot and certainly not insoluble. It was, of course, much more constructive if such were settled within the portals of the Force.
The President has also been thinking much more in the long term and he feels that the Force has to be reformed. We hope that those persons who are concerned with such matters take their cue from the path President Granger pointed and begin to act.
We are quite confident, however, that the Police Force with the help and cooperation of the citizens who have been mobilized, will make the Christmas season a happy and safer one.