The Guyana Police Force’s has more than doubled its clearance rate for cases, acting Commissioner of Police David Ramnarine announced on Friday.
Ramnarine told reporters during a press conference that the instances where cases result in charges has increased to 58%, from between 20% and 25%. Despite the many challenges in the area of public security, Ramnarine said the Guyana Police Force (GPF) is moving in the right direction as its members continue to forge, build and sustain valuable relationships and partnerships.
In response to the recently released USAID-funded report, ‘Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance Assessment of Guyana,’ which noted that that the GPF was the least-trusted institution in the country, he said it would seek to use the criticism.
“There are many challenges in the area of public security, both human and material, but we do not and will not own up to the criticisms in a negative way but rather we will own up to them and use them in a positive way because that’s the best way forward,” he stated.
At the same time, Ramnarine lauded the force for its efforts during the past few years, while saying that they have resulted in huge improvements. He noted that that the capacity and capability of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) is now much improved and resultantly persons who were victims of serious crimes many years ago are comfortable requesting the reopening of old cases.
Recently, the CID has received an additional 100 ranks. Apart from this, there is also a junior investigator’s course ongoing, which saw the participation of over 30 ranks from the department. This, Ramnarine said, demonstrates that the demand of the department was recognized. “A lot of what we are currently benefiting from is directly relates to the trust and confidence that the Justice Education Society (JES) from Canada has in the force,” he added, while noting that the JES has been providing the GPF, through the Government of Guyana, with the much needed training for crime scene investigators, crime scene technicians and for magistrates and prosecutors as well for them to understand the forensic video analysis system.
Meanwhile, Ramnarine also reported a 15% decrease in serious crime for this year as of August 20 in comparison to the same period last year. He said so far for this year, a total of 91 murders were recorded and this indicated an 11% decrease when compared with the same period last year. During this same period in 2015, there were 101 murders recorded.
He also reported that the GPF has seized a total of 46 guns for this year as of August 20. He said that ‘A’ Division had the most seizures, with 20 firearms. This is followed by ‘F’ Division, which seized 12 weapons. Among the firearms that were seized are 13 revolvers, 10 shotguns and 23 pistols.
He also noted that since the advent of the CCTV system in and around the city, 746 cases were made. They are largely related to traffic offences but there have also been 10 armed robbery cases, two murders and one abduction, he added.
