The Guyana Police Force (GPF) has seen an upsurge in the number of robberies and measures are being put in place to combat and decrease the prevalence of the crime, Regional Commander of Region 4(a) Phillip Azore says.
In a telephone interview with Stabroek News, Azore explained that the GPF has put things in place to curb these crimes. “…All the robberies that you have been seeing on social media, we have been actively dealing with that, especially those in the Kitty/Campbellville area, [by increasing] the police’s presence in that area,” he explained.
Azore referred to a “campaign” that the GPF embarked on to impound particular motorcycles that he said is the “cycle of choice” used to commit robberies. “There is a campaign that is going on since last week as it relates to these… motorcycles that is the cycle of choice for the bandits,” Azore highlighted.
Azore also took the opportunity to criticise the media for seemingly being one-sided in its coverage of the robberies and other crimes, although the GPF has been doing extensive work to decrease the prevalence of these crimes that happen almost every day. “I must state my disappointment [in] the media…even though the police is doing some work the media is not consistent…we are working, and I think the press needs to give us our pound and due when it comes to that,” Azore said.
The Senior Superintendent also emphasised that the impounding of the motorcycles is quite “necessary” in order to decrease the number of robberies that take place per day. “One would highlight that there is an upsurge in robberies and still when you make efforts to deal with that, it’s not [being covered in the media],” Azore stated. “Recently, with the motorcycle campaign [the media] is saying that police are taking away people’s bikes and all that. It is necessary,” he went on to say.
Azore also took the opportunity to debunk claims that there is an upsurge of crime in the Agricola community. “According to our stats, that is not true. We may have had [a few] robberies in that area…contrary to what people are saying that there is an upsurge in crime in the Agricola area, that is not true if you look at our stats,” he explained.
Azore is assuring the public that the GPF is working tirelessly to address the frequent robberies happening in areas across the capital city. “We’re working [and] intensifying our efforts, among other things, to deal with these things [and] it’s not like the police are laid back and allowing these things to happen, we are working assiduously to have [the robberies] eradicated,” he asserted.
The regional commander noted that raids were also conducted in areas such as Kitty, Campbellville and Sophia. “From this morning (Tuesday), you would see the efforts we are making in those areas…up to last week in the Kitty/Campbellville area we would have raided a place and found a number of bulletproof vests and other things like that, so we are working,” he emphasised.
