Almost a month after three persons were robbed on the East Bank of millions of dollars by men dressed as police officers, one of the victims maintains that the perpetrators were actual officers and not mere impersonators.

Parmanand Teekaram, 39, of 52 Cornelia Ida, West Coast Demerara said… “I can’t feel that it’s civilian robbing people; it has to be police. These persons have police uniform.” Teekaram, a taxi driver, said the uniforms seemed very authentic. “Everything was correct; it’s just that the man with the blue and black uniform didn’t have on a badge but everything else was down to the tee.”

Teekaram also opined that security was a major issue for persons travelling to and from the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri and said that there ought to be more police patrols. According to Teekaram, the distances between police stations are great and allow bandits to make easy getaways.

“Officials don’t do nothing for ordinary citizens them,” the man lamented. He continued, “I’ve heard talks about 24 hour patrols but I’ve almost never seen anything like that.”

Noting advice from Crime Chief Leslie James on protecting oneself from fake cops, Teekaram pointed out that it is extremely difficult to distinguish regular persons from the “real deal,” especially from afar and at night. “When you stop and these people have guns, there’s nothing you can do after that,” he said.

He went on to say that many officers’ use of unofficial vehicles makes it difficult to identify them. He explained that oftentimes he would see officers stepping out of private vehicles and not police vehicles and, since this is a norm, he was not concerned when he had been stopped several weeks ago.