High crime hinders Guyana’s development – UNDP

- confidence in the police still low

Some of the proceeds of crime

Guyana has been identified as one of eight countries affected by high levels of crime and this is hindering development in the Caribbean, according to a recent United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report. The selected countries are Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. The survey also found that the levels of confidence in the police were low. This was also highlighted in a similar report released in 2012. The Caribbean Human Development Report (HDR) and UNDP noted that the consultations involved more than 450 people including experts, practitioners and a variety of institutional actors and interested parties from across the region. The report also relies on secondary data from official sources and academic research. The report notes that 8.5 per cent of the global population resides in Latin America and the Caribbean and yet 27 per cent of the world murders take place in the region. “The Caribbean HDR presents the opportunity for the people of the region to learn more about each other and to enhance collective learning and solutions. It does not attempt to explore every aspect of the security situation in the sub-region or to replicate or to improve on previous efforts, but rather, to extend them,” said the UNDP. The UNDP stated that more than 1,200 people in the seven Caribbean islands were surveyed to gauge the perception of crime and justice in the region, with many of the respondents indicating that they live in fear of violent crime and had little confidence in the police. Almost 10 per cent of those questioned had been victims of crime in the 12 months up to the survey. The numbers ranged from a low of six per cent in Jamaica to a high of 11 per cent in Antigua, Barbuda, St. Lucia and Barbados. The number of rapes is higher than the world average; 30 per cent of females surveyed said they lived in fear of being sexually assaulted. Twelve per cent of women and nine per cent of men feared domestic violence. The percentage of those who had actually experienced domestic violence ranged between six per cent in Jamaica and 17 per cent in Guyana. “The Caribbean HDR limits the discussion of drug-trafficking and organized crime to their national traits and the violence they generate,” it added. The report points to the failings in the justice system. Delays and backlogs in processing criminal cases contributes to low conviction rates, while pre-trial detention is over-used and exacerbates prison over-crowding. Prison capacity is described as “overwhelmed”, and faults in the system have had a negative effect on the “capacity for fairness, effectiveness, transparency and accountability”. The report found that the region has a particular problem with drug trafficking and the violence and corruption that surround the trade.

The Guyana Police Force is looking at several new methods of transporting or escorting persons with large sums of cash from one location to another. While the details of the new plan were not revealed, the business community of Georgetown was informed of this by Commander of the ‘A’ Division, Clifton Hicken.

Hicken was at the time meeting with the business community as part of a follow up meeting at the Division Headquarters in Georgetown.

Cobra you are showing an increase of 7% and not a drop in serious crimes.

The Guyana Police Force has recorded a 5% drop in total serious crimes this year when compared to last year.

The total number of reports of serious crimes made between January 01 and May 31, 2014, was 1,605 compared to 1,523 for the same period in 2013.

The snake is doing that metric system addition where two is five and three is one.