GEORGETOWN Mayor Patricia Chase-Green has announced that a security policing plan is in place for the Christmas season, which will see a greater collaboration between the City Constabulary and the Guyana Police Force (GPF).

Reporting to city councillors at Monday’s statutory meeting, Chase-Green informed that the GPF met recently with members of the constabulary and have since made some adjustments on how things are done on the streets; and have put in place certain temporary arrangements.

According to the mayor, Traffic Chief Superintendent Linden Isles met with a high-level team from City Hall and conducted a walk-about last Saturday around the Stabroek area.
A decision was made to relocate the mini-buses from under ‘Silvie’s’ on Hadfield Street to the western side of Parliament Buildings. ‘Silvie’s’ had in the past written to the City Council, complaining about the inconvenience that the operations cause to their business and the number of robberies that are being committed as a result.

The GPF officers also asked that some vendors pull back their stalls so as not to go beyond the lines drawn on the roadways.
Chase-Green said an arrangement was also made to deal with the traffic build- up in front of ‘Brassonics’ on Water Street, where motorists usually do a U-turn and where many robberies are reported to have been committed.

Just last week, Chief Constable (Ag) Laurel Gittens told the Guyana Chronicle that most of the criminal activities being recorded so far, as the holiday season approaches, are being committed by juveniles.
“Most of the criminal activities are being committed by juveniles; young school-leavers. Some of them are well educated, but because they are unemployed they are finding illegal things to do,” she stated.

Substantive Chief Constable Andrew Foo, who recently proceeded on 42 days’ vacation leave, had said that a policing plan needs to be in place to deal with the security issues that will arise as a result of the increased shopping during the Christmas season.
The constabulary is short of approximately 140 staff members, and efforts to recruit more workers are not bearing much fruit.

While the constabulary is expected to provide security throughout Georgetown, Foo said the lack of resources will mean that the officers will have to confine themselves to the main shopping areas for Christmas — Bourda and Stabroek Markets.

“We have a mandate to ensure that we establish a presence in the City. It is necessary that we have a policing plan to cover the entire city, but we are not able to do so. So we will ensure we confine ourselves to the commercial areas, Stabroek and Bourda. All of our resources are going to be deployed to the Stabroek and Bourda areas. Those are the areas that are heavy in terms of commercial activities, and therefore, it is necessary that we have a policing presence there,” Foo said.

Apart from the uniformed officers, Foo said officers will also be at those locations in plain-clothes. The aim, he said, is to offer protection not just to the stallholders, but to shoppers as well.

The City Constabulary Department has responsibility for the prevention and detection of crime in Georgetown and has similar powers and privileges of the Guyana Police Force (GPF). It also has the authority to prosecute persons for offences such as assault, disorderly behaviour, urinating in public places, using indecent language, encumbering the pavements and so forth.

The department also provides security for municipal markets, day-care centres, koker pumps and City Hall buildings, among others. Providing security alone takes up much of the department’s resources.
The Enforcement Unit, which deals with itinerant vending and other breaches of the law, is also very small and short of its full complement of staff.