The Guyana Police Force (GPF) says it has recorded a 19.9% decrease in serious crimes as of August 9, this year and up to that point there were 78 murders.
According to statistics provided by the police in Thursday’s edition of the Guyana Chronicle, while there has been an overall decrease in serious crimes, the number for rape has increased.
The police force is reporting that there has been a 62.6% increase in rape reports. As of August 9, there were 187 reports of rape compared to 115 for the same period last year.
Other offences listed as serious crime by the police include armed robbery.
A total of 78 murders was recorded as of August 9 this year.
Statistics revealed that the most common type of murder is the disorderly variety. There were 49 disorderly behaviour murders and 13 domestic-related murders as of August 9, the police said.
Meanwhile, two execution-style killings were recorded, six robbery-related murders and eight in the unknown category.
Further, the police said armed robberies also decreased by 34.7% with 352 occurring as of August 9 compared to 539 for the same period last year.
A decline was also recorded for other serious crimes such as robbery with aggravation.
According to the statistics, there were 16 robberies with aggravation as of August 9, this year.
Break and enter and larceny has also dropped from 487 to 419 while there have been 38 larceny from person. Robbery with violence decreased from 55 last year to 44 for the same period this year.
Additionally, the police said there were 16 robberies and 59 burglaries. There was one case of kidnapping.
The statistics were provided under a brief article which was published in the Guyana Chronicle under a section titled ‘Police and You’ that was written by Director of the police force’s Corporate Communications Unit, Mark Ramotar.
Over the past few months, members of the media including Stabroek News had requested crime statistics from the police as it relates to serious crime. Although they were promised the statistics “soon”, they were never provided.
Over the years, the force also released crime statistics at least once every three months. However, that had suddenly stopped.
