Reply to "And the robberies and murders continues unabated on a daily basis: Robberies and murders now invades Guyana"

By Alexis Rodney

The A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) coalition government will be moving to beef up security at borders across the country, in what it called “a strategic attempt” to significantly reduce the recent spike in criminal activities here.

Coupled with that move is the resuscitation of the Police’s marine wing to provide Police Officers with flexibility and greater access to inland waterways along with the use of animals, including horses and dogs, to go after criminals.

Two victims of robberies committed against citizens and businesses as of late

Two victims of robberies committed against citizens and businesses as of late

The upsurge in crime over the last couple of weeks had become a major bugbear for Government and citizens alike. Several persons lost their lives at the hands of criminals. The most recent act of violence was carried out on an East Canje, Berbice woman who was shot to her head by bandits who invaded her business premises.

President David Granger on Tuesday summoned his top brass in the security sector, including Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan and Police Commissioner Seelall Persaud, to a meeting where special focus was placed on five areas of strategy that would be taken to tackle crime.

Minister of State, Joseph Harmon said apart from border security, focus would also be placed on the Police administration itself and the requirement to identify criminal activities across all 10 regions of Guyana, to determine, where the activities are being committed and to decide on the strategy to deal with them on a national basis.

“It was felt that the high incidence of gun crimes has its genesis in the fact that we share a very long border with countries that actually produce guns and, therefore, our strategy will include border control activities as well as activities involving the Guyana Revenue Authority in relation to the way in which goods and services are imported into the country and the use to be made of the instruments that are available to the GRA,” Minister Harmon said.

Addressing journalists on Wednesday on the outcome of the high-level meeting, Harmon said the Government has given a commitment to the Guyana Police Force that it would be putting all of the assets of the state at its disposal, to ensure “that wherever criminal activities exist that it will be rooted out most viciously”. “So, the overt and covert operations which will have to be undertaken in this matter will be given the full backing of the state,” he promised.

The next element of the security plan has to do with Police organisation and training and the way in which the Police Force is organised, Harmon said. He said a clear directive was given by the Public Security Minister that more Police Officers needed to be put on the streets to carry out patrols and get out of the offices, where they are performing non-core functions.

“The deployment of the Police Force itself, the response time by Police to complaints by citizens, the operation of the 911 facility…all of these are part of the strategy and will be subject to serious review over the next couple of weeks,” Harmon said Another element of the strategy covers Police assets and equipment, Harmon said, noting that Government has given a clear undertaking to the Guyana Police Force that it would provide the assets to go after crime wherever it existed.

“These include the Police’s ability to go up in the air, to utilise aircraft and helicopter to overlook certain terrain, not only on land but on water where piracy takes place.”

“The issue of illegal firearms in the country and the way in which it is dealt with. Our zero tolerance to the use of illegal firearms is all part of the strategy.”

He said Police communication would be improved significantly with the use of computers, the Internet, and access to the Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) network.

“We have given the Police the undertaking that they will have these done. The networking of Police Stations will also be fleshed out by the Commissioner and they will have Internet access, linking the Police Stations with the CID headquarters.”

Essentially, he said the strategy session demonstrated the state’s resolve to ensure that citizens were safe and that criminals have no place, “we will go after them relentlessly and that the criminals and their handlers will understand that we will not sit by and allow them to run riot on the streets. We are sending a clear message to all and sundry, that wherever the intelligence leads us, we will follow,” the State Minister promised.