President Ali – Gov’t will launch confidential programme to turn criminals’ lives around

–Country-wideSafe City Programme, gun amnesty period to aid crime fighting
President Dr. Irfaan Ali on Friday announced a range of measures in the pipeline to not only
fight crime but reform the lives of criminals in Guyana.
During a live broadcast, President Ali announced that a programme would soon be launched to
reform criminals who want to change their lives. He promised that the programme will be
premised on confidentiality.  “Once you want to change your life, we want a discussion with
you. We want to talk to you to give you an alternative pathway to earning an income and living a
decent life. The life of crime is short-lived, you may have in your head short-term glory, but it’s
short-lived. We want to work with you in giving you a better option at life,” President Ali said.
The President said additionally, that there will be a period for gun amnesty, where persons with
illegal firearms can turn over their weapons.
HIGHEST PENALTY
He said the amnesty would also help persons to change their lives since, according to the
President, he has charged the Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister, Anil Nandlall, to
examine the existing laws and make amendments so as to ensure that the full force of the law is
applied to persons with illegal weapons.  “I have asked the Attorney General to look at the laws
and to propose an amendment to apply the highest penalty for persons found with illegal
weapons because that is a major contributory factor [for crime],” Ali said
The President also presented crime statistics and pointed out that crime has had an overall 19.4%
decrease from 2020 to 2021. This, he noted, has been achieved although his Government
inherited the Guyana Police Force (GPF) with more than 90% of their vehicular assets not
functioning as they should. He said that despite this decrease in crime nationwide, the President
stated that regions 1, 6, 7 and 9 have had increases. Ali noted that the GPF would tailor specific
policies and programmes to deal with the increases at a region-to-region level.
COUNTRYWIDE SAFE CITY PROGRAMME
The President pointed out that Region 4 A—an area that the Police has often had difficulties with
in the past—has recorded the largest decrease—43.4%.President Ali said the statistics shows that
areas covered under the Safe City Programme are showing better crime-fighting results. He
explained that to address all the regions, the Government will develop a ‘Safe Country
Programme” that promises to see the entire country connected to CCTV cameras, monitored by
the relevant authorities. He noted that the aim of this is to have a proactive approach to crime-
fighting.
The Head of State stressed that the Government is mulling incentivising crime-fighting where
good performance will be differentiated.

DETAILED STATISTICS
President Ali noted that investments will be made in intelligence gathering to further the
Government’s agenda of promoting proactive police work. This, he explained that while the
Police Force often faces a lot of criticism, they do put in detailed work to develop their strategy
and information gathering. He declared that to enhance this, it must be community-centred and
community-oriented.
Ali declared that the GPF must also enhance its trust between the force and the community.
He revealed that additional statistics indicated that there was a decrease in robbery under arms
and robbery with aggravation at 32.4% and 44.7%, respectively. However, he noted that rape has
had an increase of 55% and will be an issue that “we have to get tough on” and see tremendous
improvement.
Ali disclosed that in addition to basic crime statistics, the GPF has also been taking detailed
statistics aimed at improving the way they target crime-fighting. He pointed out that not only
have they made records of crime committed on individual days of the week—with Saturday
being the most “high risk” day, the GPF has also recorded the specific time of the day that crime
peaks. “This is the level of analysis that we are doing now to have a more structured and targeted
approach to crime-fighting,” the President explained.
President Ali also explained that there is a notion that the GPF does not solve crimes, especially
the more serious ones. He, however, pointed out that the force’s rate of prosecution is one of the
best in the Region. The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces said that this year there has
been a 6.5% increase in prosecutions for murder, which represents 68.1% of the murders that
have been committed.
President Ali admitted that there are challenges and noted that while crime has statistically
decreased from last year, the Government is still not satisfied. “One single crime is too much
crime….We’re not hiding from any issues. You do not have a President who will hide from any
issue. I am going to be upfront in dealing with every issue that challenges the people of this
country. I’m committed to working every single day to make your lives better,” Ali added.