Unemployed males, between the ages of 18 and 25, were the main perpetrators of the crimes committed in July, according to a review conducted by the Home Affairs Ministry.
Louis Dodson, a Public Policy Consultant with the ministry, told a security seminar at the Pegasus Hotel on Tuesday that these assailants usually operate in groups of two and tend to prefer victims who are by themselves as most persons at the time of the incident were alone.
The seminar was organised by the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) in collaboration with the Guyana Association of Private Security Organisations (GAPSO) in response to a spike in robberies in early July. Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee, who addressed the seminar, said that he believed that his ministry needs to continue what it is currently doing, then build on it to improve domestic security.
The ministry conducted its review in an effort to better understand, where, when, and by whom, crimes were being perpetrated and Dodson presented some of the findings of the research.
Dodson explained that the team he worked with employed the Crime Analysis Triangle approach to their research which argues that a crime is committed when a would-be offender finds a suitable target, and a suitable place to perpetrate a criminal act.
The research showed that out of a total of 357 crimes recorded for July, 191 were carried out in the capital city, Georgetown. Dodson said that this was not surprising, since the capital city, home to a population of 250,000, is filled with people who come into contact each day.
Dodson argued that the size of the population coupled with the fact that many of these persons do not know each other creates an atmosphere ripe for potential assailants to pounce on unsuspecting victims.
Further breaking down the number of crimes seen in Georgetown, Dodson noted that most of the crime perpetrated occurred in Lacytown, Guyana’s key economic centre. Dodson noted that many of the banks, and other prominent business operations and other agencies were located in this section of the city.
Despite this reality though, Dodson said they found that the majority of the crimes which occurred were street crimes, while crimes against commercial places were significantly fewer. The study also found that there was no preferred day to commit crimes as almost similar numbers were seen for every day of the week. Meanwhile, it was also unearthed that of all the crimes committed, the majority were phone thefts, while cash and jewelry thefts came in second and third, respectively.
Nakasi Nedd, another Home Affairs official, told seminar participants of the ministry’s ambitions of getting into Crime Mapping and Predictive Modeling. Nedd said that by compiling and analysing information on crime, the ministry hopes to be able to create a map which will be able to show crime patterns, including what type of crime usually happens in which-ever part of the country. The completion of this project, Nedd said, will enable the ministry to become more proactive in crime fighting, as opposed to reactive. Meanwhile, Home Affairs Ministry Information Technolog
y (IT) Specialist Floyd Levi said that the Integrated Crime Information System (ICIS), launched in 2010, is to play an integral role in offering more efficient and effective police services.
ICIS, Levi explained, links the Ministry of Home Affairs and the various police stations to other government agencies with which it works closely.
These agencies include the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), the Guyana Prison Service (GPS), the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions, and the Supreme and Magistrate courts.
The benefit of this system, he said, is that the relevant authorities will be able to construct a comprehensive profile of those who transgress the law, as well as victims of such transgressions. When the initiative was launched in 2010, Levi said that 300 ranks had been trained in the area of IT as the ministry geared itself to make full use of the system.
