By Fareeza Haniff
[www.inewsguyana.com] – The government says it is sending a strong message to the criminal underworld that all State assets at its disposal will be used to support the Guyana Police Force to effectively tackle the out of control crime situation in the country.
At a post cabinet media briefing at the Ministry of the Presidency on Wednesday, July 08, Minister of State, Joseph Harmon announced that a draft anti crime strategy has been completed, which encompasses more resources and technical support for the Police Force to confront the situation.
These include more CCTV cameras across the country and the use of “horses and dogs” to track criminals, Harmon said.
“The draft strategy will flesh out by the Vice President [Khemraj Ramjattan] and refined by the Commissioner of Police to ensure that citizens in this country are safe and the criminals, criminal underworld and intellectual authors of criminal activity understand that this government has a very strong resolve to root our crime wherever it exists in Guyana,” the Minister of State said.
Some aspects of the anti crime strategy includes the police administration and the requirement to identify incidents of criminal activity across the 10 regions, to determine where it was committed.
According to Harmon, protection of Guyana’s borders will be increased since it is believed that the high incidents of gun crimes is due to the fact that Guyana shares a very long border with countries that actually produce small arms weapons.
“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.”
The strategy also deals with police organization and training, deployment of ranks, the response time to complaints made and the operation of the 911 system which will all be subject to “serious review.”
“The police ability to be able to go up in the air, to utilize aircraft, helicopters to actually overlook certain terrain… not only in land but acts of piracy on the high seas,” are also included in the draft plan.
According to Harmon, the Police communication will be improved significantly by the use of the internet, computers and by access to CCTV.
“Criminals have no place, have no home; we will go after them relentlessly with every tool, every asset of the State and that the criminals and their handlers will understand that the State will not sit idly by and allow them to run riot on the streets of this country. We’re sending a clear signal, a clear message to all and sundry that wherever the intelligence lead takes us, we’re going to follow it and there will be no sacred cows where this matter is concerned,” the Minister of State concluded.
On Tuesday, President David Grange met with the Minister of Public Security and members of the Police Force and Guyana Defence Force, where the draft anti crime strategy was crafted.
All the preceding comments sound gr8 but I believe that any combination of them will be lacking without serious penalties. Eg.anyone found with an illegal gun should automatically face a 10yr min prison term,If the gun has bullets another ten years, plus another 10 if an offence is committed with the weapon. Hence before picking up a gun all citizens would be forced to decide if they are prepared to lose 10,20 or 30yrs of their lives and that would significantly reduce the amount of times a particular person will be able to commit a gun related offence in a lifetime
Yes I agree bring pack death penalty, rather enforce it.
We have to look even further to eye scans for immegration and border control with the necessary labs and sadly so, Desmond Hoyte did something that stopped kick-down-the -door robbery. He hanged them. And he started by hanging his own party member first. Who is willing to make that statement again to this time stop robbery murders and drug killings?
What ever happened to placing tabs on suspects. Rather than arresting people as soon as they commit a simple crime you can place tabs on them so when you get all the info u will be able to bring down the whole organization rather than small fishes alone eg, the smokers and junkies are easily identifiable in any community, so u place tabs on then to identify the neighborhood pushers, then u do the same to identify the producers and importers, thus capturing all of them at once. When it comes to gun crimes they are usual suspect in every community, do some surveilence, the usual suspects dont always do the crime but i bet he knows who did it, ‘birds of a feather flock together’.
I honestly believe that intelligence gathering is the most important part of crime fighting. We need more informers but we also need an independent body to receive all info because the police cannot be trusted until they can get their act together. It would also be great if they can find a way for people to give info without being identified. I would recommend that two very professional and committed undercover agents be placed in every taxi service to gather info. As a former taxi driver i know for sure that taxi drivers patrols the streets much more than the police plus they also interact with more people than the police on a daily basis. In other words taxi drivers knows exactly what goes on and who is doing what plus some of them are involved in crimes too.
Well Gerry I am sorry I am too young, so I am unaware of horse guards lol good to know that was in place. Thanks
My dear Ann, when we were children, every afternoon the horse guards patrolled the neighborhoods. We as children used to run home as they stopped and asked you where you were going. The limers used to have to clear out. haha
Why not put the soldiers to patrol on the roads!!! Get them working! They certainly aint fighting any war so it makes no sense you keep them utilizing the resources and the Guyanese can’t benefit!!! GET THE SOLDIERS OUT THERE TO HELP FIGHT THE CRIME!!!!!
That’s good ideas, they will even b better if and when they are implemented.
Please DO NOT underplay the use of HUMANS – those law-abiding citizens who have intelligence about the movement and actions of criminals, who can greatly assist the Police. But the Police MUST behave professional and not say who gave information. The Public is very mist-trusting of some Police who it is widely known, give information to the criminals as to who snitched on them.
I think the government is heading in the right direction.
Camaras r a very good idea. I love when those big brothers r watching they can pick up so much.
I don’t know about horses being used to assist in finding criminals I do know German shepherd dogs are pretty good at assisting police. They are use in US and Canada.
Well all this seems good, I think we need drastic measures the crime situation is clearly out of control hence they should have a general curfew implemented on the streets anyone found after that time if they don’t have a valid reason should face charges, all guns an ammunition legal and illegal should have be handed in to the military.
Let’s hope this is not all talk. What Mr Harmon has revealed is most encouraging and am pleased that something is in the pipeline to be activated and must be activated with urgency. The Guyanese population has been held to ransom by the criminals and the criminal underworld for too long. Businessmen/women have reasons to fear who would be in line as their next target.
Police responses needed to be addressed immediately. It seems as if the Police are too lazy or scared to get out of the police stations when armed robberies are in progress or reported. The 911 system must also be looked at to find out why the phones go unanswered or excuses being made for not responding. It takes too long for the police to respond-if they do respond- to armed robbery based on many reports carried in the newspapers.
LET THE FIGHT BACK BEGIN. RETAKE GUYANA FROM THE CRIMINALS