While the Guyana Police Force (GPF) has recorded an 18% decrease in serious crimes in the country, driving under the influence (DUI) cases have seen a 90% increase compared with last year, Commissioner of Police Seelall Persaud has said.
Persaud made the disclosure while addressing members of the joint services yesterday at the Police’s Anniversary Award Ceremony.
Delivering the mid-year statistical analysis, the commissioner explained that while the beginning of 2016 saw a flurry of fatal accidents, the occurrences have since slowed over the last two months.
However, the current analysis reveals that there has been an 18% increase in road fatalities compared with the same period last year.
Additionally, this year has also seen a total of 14, 214 cases of speeding, which reflects an increase of 21.4%, as well as an estimated 990 cases of DUI, a 90% increase relative to the same period last year. Persaud described speeding and DUI as being two key elements that contribute to the majority of fatal and other serious accidents that occur in the country.
Meanwhile, he said, the force has recorded an 18% decrease in serious crime, relative to the same period last year, adding that the decrease is reflected in every category of serious crimes.
“We also recorded a 70% ‘clear up’ on murders reported this year and have solved a number of cold cases, some of which have occurred in excess of 10 years ago. This speaks to a great improvement in public trust and the capacity of the force, primarily the CID, but every other department in the force,” the commissioner said.
Reflecting on other achievements during the first half of the year, Persaud alluded to the incident-free hosting of three main events, Guyana’s Golden Jubilee of Independence, the Caricom Heads of Government Summit and the recently concluded Guyana leg of the Hero CPL Cricket tournament.
He said, “Our public trust drives have been gaining traction, not only in the organized groups, but even down to household level. Together with joint services in Operation Dragnet, we have seen three incident-free major events.”
The commissioner noted that members of the force should be applauded for this, since these events demanded extensive support from the GPF.
“All three events would have heavily depended on the force and it is the discipline and dedication to work by our ranks and by our ranks in our sister organizations that would have seen that security at its optimum level,” he said.
As regards recruitment and training, he related that the force would have facilitated the graduation of 438 recruits for the year thus far, all of whom he said, have already been deployed performing duties at various police locations around the country.
Degree programmes
He further noted that close to 300 additional ranks would be graduating sometime this month.
Additionally, the force has a total of 23 members completing degree programmes at the University of Guyana and universities abroad. He cited Superintendent Eastman who received the President’s Gold Medal for being the best graduating student in Public Management at the University of Guyana. Five officers also completed Masters Degrees during the last academic year and there is one who is in the final stages of his legal education certificate at the University of the West Indies.
Further, Persaud noted that the GPF has witnessed Assistant Commissioner Joseph and Senior Superintendent Graham receiving national awards – the Disciplined Service Medal from the Government of Guyana. Graham is also scheduled to receive an international award in October for her work with women police in the GPF and for coordinating their social crime prevention programme.
He also spoke of a decision made by the National Security Committee that allowed the relocation the ‘F’ Division Commander’s Office from Eve Leary to Bartica, a location within ‘F’ Division. He highlighted that resources to that division have been boosted and mentioned that there is now a Mounted Unit at Lethem which conducts patrols at Guyana’s southern border.
The commissioner highlighted the relocation of the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) to a place, he said, that not only makes the ranks there more comfortable but also puts the office outside of Police HQ compound and next door to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
“This was done for two main reasons, one being for the benefit of those who are going to the OPR to make complaints so they are not subjected to scrutiny at the gate of the Police Headquarters compound and secondly, so they are right next door the office of the DPP, so that they can be advised during the progress of their investigations,” he said.
“Making them more comfortable, of course, comes with an expectation that their quality of performance would improve. We still have to build a lot of capacity to address our internal accountability and here I speak primarily to the OPR to the Office of Audit and Inspection and to the Occupational Health and Safety Office,” Persaud added.
Once this is done, he stated, welfare of ranks would be addressed while allowing the force to identify and address those who the media have referred to as “rogue cops; this adds not only to public trust but it also adds to motivation for the hard-working men and women that we have within the force.”
Also new, Persaud said, is the establishment of Gender-Based Violence units at Divisional Headquarters and Sub Divisional headquarters, in accordance with a decision taken at the Police Officers’ Conference held earlier this year.
Further, the force has also managed to continue the expansion of its social crime prevention programme with the establishments of an additional nine youth groups and seven major to medium community projects.
“You will agree that for this year so far, the police force has been very fruitful in pursing projects we have decided on. And for that I wish to thank members of the force, our sponsors, and members of the public and members of the media for the parts they have played,” he added.
