The Guyana Police Force yesterday reported that there had been a small percentage increase in serious crime as compared to last year but that as the year ends today those numbers are down from a high at the beginning of the year.
“Total serious crimes rose in February and peaked in August when we had a total of 388 reports,” Police Commissioner Seelall Persaud reported yesterday at the police’s annual end-of-year press conference.
However, Persaud informed that at the end of this year the numbers decreased by more than half because of police servicemen and women frontally tackling the issue. As such, he said that the numbers pressured downwards to 301 September, 327 in October, 307 in November and by December 21, there had been 157 reports.
Murders, specifically executions, rose by 7% while those that were robbery-related increased by 16%. Domestic violence-related murders went up by 14 per cent and disorderly type murders a whopping 43%. He said that murders of the disorderly type had been consistently high over the last five years. This was because, “… members of our society resort to violence in order to treat conflicts,” Persaud posited.
He said deterrents can serve as preventative methods and lauded the Guyana Police Force Social Crime Prevention Programme which has begun community outreaches and tackling youths.
Regarding illegal firearms, there has been a total of 300 seized this year; 186 were collected during the amnesty and 114 during police operations. Of the 114, 90 were handguns, 15 shotguns, 8 rifles and 1 submachine gun (SMG).
The recently implemented ‘Operation Dragnet’ has yielded much results already, according to the Commissioner, who said that since its implementation 62 persons have been charged with serious crimes, including nine with murder. Fifteen illegal firearms were seized along with 164 rounds of ammunition and six motor vehicles that were stolen have been recovered.
In the area of narcotics enforcement, a total of 151 kilogrammes of cocaine were seized, for which 147 persons were charged. Meanwhile 854,146 kilos of cannabis were seized and destroyed and 584 persons charged.
Another 849,619 kilos of cannabis were destroyed from 19 fields of cultivation in an estimated 51.5 acres.
Persaud said that while it may appear to the public that only small traffickers are captured here, the GPF continues to work with regional and international drug and law enforcement agencies to bring down large suppliers and drug kingpins as the force believes that this country is more a transshipment point than a market for cocaine. “Most of the people you catch with loads are either warehousing or transporting. We have a small population so even if a high percentage were involved in consumption of cocaine it still would be very insignificant to what is passing through here,” Persaud explained.
“There is an international law enforcement conference by the US and the way it works, regions work together and they meet and share information and so on and is facilitated by Interpol and so on.
At the Caribbean level they identify top targets… Guyana has been participating in that arrangement for a number of years,” he added.
Turning to the trafficking of persons (TIP) Persaud said that 15 reports were investigated. Those reports relate to a total of 56 alleged victims 16 of whom were under 18 years. Overall, six charges resulted from those investigations.
The commissioner said that while only slight fluctuations were seen in the rates of DV-related murders, there has been a significant reduction in reports of domestic violence. “We had 4,979 reports in 2011; 3,786 in 2012; 3,225 in 2013; 860 in 2014 and 1,416 in 2015. The bringing into focus and positive attention given by all sectors of our society has certainly achieved significant success. I ask the related organizations as well as the general public to let us keep treating with this issue since it impacts negatively on the most important social unit – the family,” Persaud stressed.
And while he reported that this year has recorded the lowest number of suicides over the past five years, the commissioner underscored that it was still a burning issue that needs to be dealt with frontally, starting from edification in the home.
This year there have been a total of 89 reported cases of suicides compared to 102 in 2011, 95 in 2012, 128 in 2013 and 97 in 2014.
