Crime was never out of control – Top Cop

– as several ranks awarded for outstanding work

July 16, 2015 | By KNews | Filed Under News, Source

Police Commissioner Seelall Persaud has said that despite the numbers, the crime situation in Guyana within recent times was never out of control.

Speaking at a special police awards ceremony, yesterday, the country’s Top Cop said that the statistics and the perception of the current situation show different pictures.

Up June month end, the Guyana Police Force recorded a nine percent increase in serious crimes, with murders showing a runaway increase of 14 percent when compared with the same period last year.

“The perception is that since the last elections (May 11), crime has spiraled out of control … but the statistics is showing that last year we had a fifteen percent reduction and that this year we are measuring those reported crimes against the reported crime last year, of that 15 percent reduction,” the Commissioner explained.

He said that the force has seen increases since February and continuously. “So, it’s not a case that it’s after the elections that we saw increases.”

He stated as a matter of fact that the largest increases in criminal activity so far this year in any one month occurred in March.

But what is fueling this perception?  According to the Commissioner, this might have been because of more violence attached to some of the reported criminal activities … less numbers but more violence within the past two months.

He explained that quite a number of victims of robberies were shot; some of them were even killed as in the recent case of businessman Ganesh Ramlall.

“The situation was never out of control and so it’s easy for some of our critics to sensationalise … maybe it works towards the end that they want to achieve,” Persaud stated.

He said that what the critics do not recognize is that within recent times, the high profile crimes are being matched by high profile arrests and prosecutions.

“So how is it out of control?” he asked.

He admitted that the numbers are too high and way beyond what a society should accept, and therefore no one should develop a tolerance to crime.

“We should cry out and we should bring a focus to get a solution to it,” Persaud said.

He referred to the recent engagement with the government during which President Granger provided a five point strategy which the Force is expected to fine tune and implement.

The new strategy is not dissimilar to the Donald Ramotar ‘15 in 15’ plan for the police which was outlined at the Police Officers’ Conference earlier this year.

“Once we’re talking about crime, regardless of what front you’re fighting it from, there will be commonalities,” the Commissioner told this newspaper.

And it is not difficult to gauge the public support for and response to the police in current crime fight, since within the past year; the force’s successes have been driven by its fast developing intelligence capacity.

According to the Commissioner, since the commencement of the Force’s social crime prevention programme, the public has been seeing the Police Force through different lens.

“They engage us differently and a lot of trust and everything else has developed,” the Commissioner stated.

Yesterday saw several ranks receiving cash incentives for outstanding work over the past six months. Most of the recipients at yesterday’s ceremony were responsible for the recovery of illegal firearms and ammunition.
Several community policing groups were also recognized for their contribution to crime fighting.

Commissioner also personally awarded $100,000 to Constable Adams, a member of the SWAT unit, who was injured during Tuesday morning’s operation which led to the killing of a notorious criminal ringleader and the arrest of several of his accomplices.

He said that those who sit behind a computer in an office all day and criticize, must realize that policemen and women take risks every day that could possibly lead to them paying the ultimate price.

“Constable Adams did not go down, he did not try to discourage his teammates, he did not back off; he continued in accordance with the standard procedure and stayed there until the operation was completed…Constable Adams, a few years ago was shot in the other leg in another operation in Berbice.

He did not back off. And that is the kind of courage that is displayed every day that our critics who sit in the safety of their offices never understood and never want to understand,” the commissioner said.