The Guyana Police Force (GPF) has recorded a 46.6% decrease in serious crimes for the year thus far, Commissioner of Police (ag) Nigel Hoppie has announced.
While delivering remarks at the opening of the GPF’s Annual Officers’ Conference on Thursday at the National Cultural Centre, Hoppie said while the police have no direct control of crime, the force is not sparing any effort to exercise crime control by utilising methods of prevention.
Hoppie noted that the conference would see the police reviewing and reexamining its strategies in an effort to ensure that the performance of the ranks during the fight against crime is better than last year, when the force recorded a 5.9% decrease in serious crimes.
“We will continue to work diligently in terms of our raids, road blocks, robust anti-crime patrol and intelligence network bolstered by division crime intelligence units and analytical work by work of data collecting through the integrated crime information system,” he noted.
Within the recent years, Hoppie explained, the police were successful in dismantling a number of criminal groups.
However, he said while no gang has been identified presently, work is ongoing through intelligence-led policing to interdict criminal elements involved in armed robberies, especially with illegal firearms.
Hoppie further said the performance of the force Criminal Investigation Depart-ment (CID) has been “commendable,” while highlighting the support it has received from the crime intelligence unit and the police lab. He also called the work of the Major Crimes Unit noteworthy.
Traffic
Hoppie also disclosed that there has been a 19% decrease in fatal accidents for the year thus far when compared to the same period in 2020.
Hoppie said speeding continues to
be a major contributing factor to fatal accidents.
Last year, road fatalities, he said, largely comprised of pedal cyclists, motorcyclists, pillion riders, pedestrians, drivers of cars and drivers and passengers of minibuses.
According to Hoppie, statistics indicate that driving under the influence of alcohol, distracted driving and non-compliance with traffic signals were among the major contributing elements of the recorded fatal accidents.
As a result, he said during the past year the force’s traffic enforcement operations mainly focused on those areas.
He added that while there have been some indications of improvement in the use of roadways by motorists and pedestrians, there are still many persons who use the roadways in a manner not consistent with the 5 Cs (Care, Courtesy, Consideration, Common Sense and Caution).
“We urge them to do so in the interest of your own safety and that of the other road users in order that we have lesser number of persons losing their lives to fatal accidents even as we continue rigorous enforcement of the laws,” Hoppie said.
