The recent GTT Giftland Complex robbery and the swift apprehending of one of the two men alleged to have perpetrated the crime attracted media and public attention for at least a few days, a noteworthy development given the fact that, these days, individual incidents of crime occupy so much space in the realm of public discourse.
It was the role that technology played in the apprehending of the alleged robber that captured public attention, the young man’s picture having been caught clearly on one of the cameras strategically inside the Mall.
Setting that aside, the robbery itself was worrying when account is taken of the high level of risk associated with robbing a targeted business house inside an establishment as large as the Giftland Mall. Here, it is not just the high-risk implications for the robbers themselves but the likely potential consequences (like indiscriminate shooting or even hostage-taking) for visitors to the Mall. One raises this issue not to create undue public alarm but in order to enquire as to whether ongoing official contemplation on crime and security is taking these considerations into account and the extent to which we are adequately resourced to deal with them.
One raises this question on the assumption that the ensuing official discourses on police reform have to do with, among other things, seeking to fashion responses to extant crime challenges as well as envisaged ones, likely to emerge in the period ahead. Here, it is apposite to inquire as to whether the pace of police reform is staying abreast of emerging crime trends and whether, eventually, the rolling out of police reform will occur in a manner that allows it to keep pace with new and still emerging crime challenges.
As has already been mentioned the GTT Giftland robbery held the headlines for a while for some specific reasons, the most important of which had to do with the role that technology played in the exposure of the alleged robber. This, however, is not to say that other crime-related issues do not arise here. Frankly, we may be experiencing another ‘rash’ of urban crimes, some of them attended by weapons and injuries. The frequency of these certainly create justification for raising the decibel level of public discourse about evolving crime patterns and whether or not these patterns are coming under the analytical scrutiny of the GPF. Here, the point should be made that while the likely crime challenges resulting from anticipated socio-economic transformation require a multi-faceted upgrading of the competencies of the law enforcement institutions, national contemplation on the issue of crime and security is the business of the entire nation and not just the various state and non-state institutions concerned with security.
We can no longer quibble amongst ourselves as to whether crime patterns are evolving (as evidenced in the instance of the GTT Giftland robbery) since the evidence is certainly there. Going beyond the Giftland caper, we are seeing the emergence of bicycled gangs of youngsters roaming the streets in search of opportunistic robbery openings pose their own threat. Their favoured modus operandi, it seems, is to pounce on mostly (though by no means exclusively) unsuspecting women of their handbags. They are dangerous because they are swift and violent and because they carry knives which they have demonstrated a willingness to use in response to any resistance from their victims. Beyond that, some of our inner city communities continue to be havens for opportunistic crimes. Early evening crimes,. some of which go unreported, are also an issue. One of the ‘iffy’ areas being the half a dozen blocks or so on Robb Street, between Camp Street and Avenue of the Republic. There are other such stretches of road in central Georgetown that become risky once darkness falls.
The likelihood of increased incidents of various types of crime including run-of-the-mill robberies is, incidentally, one of the threatened transformations considered likely to derive from the business activity associated with new-found investment interests in Guyana. It is true that the oil and gas-related affluence will take some time to materialize but even now, with manifest evidence of heightened investor interest as well as evidence of an increase in business-related visitor arrivals, it is more than likely that the strategically inclined criminals are already busy at the drawing board.
A few weeks ago, during a conversation with this newspaper shortly after he had opened his new Security Store on Chalmers Place, off Brickdam, a businessman made the perfectly salient point that business houses and individuals alike need to be much more mindful of the security of their persons and their property and that we may have arrived at a stage where we simply must raise our game beyond what obtains at this time. This, he pointed out, will, of necessity, have to go beyond the stepped up training and equipping of the Guyana Police Force, the existing Security Services and of course the many others that will doubtless mushroom in the period ahead. His point was the greater the priority we place on security the more costly the service will become. On the other hand, he pointed out, we frown on making meaningful and workable investments in shoring up our security infrastructure at our own peril. On the basis of what would appear to lie ahead there is a considerable measure of merit in what he says.
The reality, whether we like it or not, is that the international attention, investments and hoped-for returns that we anticipate from the expected change in the country’s fortunes will come at a material cost. The price of not facing the reality of having to bear that cost, however, is almost certain to be much higher.
