Combating crime still top government priority

COMBATING CRIME REMAINS THE GOVERNMENT’S TOP PRIORITY, Vice
President Bharrat Jagdeo assured Guyanese when he met Friday with the local press corps at the
Arthur Chung Convention Centre (ACCC), Orchid Drive, Liliendaal, on the East Coast corridor.
Jagdeo admitted to reporters that police crime statistics are indeed worrying and he asked law
officers to meet regularly and update the press about the scale of ongoing criminal offences in
the country.
“Crime is a really big issue for us and we are very concerned about the numbers that they show
us. We asked that the police regularly update the media with the numbers so that they can be
interrogated too, but that is crucial for us, the VP said.
In this year’s budget debate, Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn reported a 6.9 percent dip in
crime across the country for 2020.

This slide, Benn attributed to the universal stay-at-home order to help fight the effects of the
global COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, robbery, robbery under arms, robbery with violence,
breaking and entering and larceny and burglary showed decline,” Benn told legislators.

Nevertheless, Benn said “murder increased by 13 per cent.”
Jagdeo, General Secretary (GS) of the ruling Peoples Progressive Party Civic coalition (PPP/C)
advised the police to update the press regularly about local crime statistics to help strengthen
relationships between the two sides and ensuring accountability for the key sector by security
officials.
The government he said plans to resuscitate the Smart City Initiative, a project implemented
while the PPPC was in office prior to losing the 2015 General and Regional polls to the coalition
A Partnership for National Unity, Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC).

“What we are looking at right now is resuscitating the programme because it’s all in chaos and
limited to 265 cameras. (We will be) taking this across the country with a capability of
monitoring and operating it, (so) you can see what’s going on,” Jagdeo explained.
The administration is also mulling introducing privacy rules and regulations to help broaden the
scope of the programme. The VP also disclosed plans to extend forensic science here with the
employment of some 100 persons through the Government of Guyana scholarship programme.
“It would help a lot, that means we would have to pass new laws about privacy which is a law-
enforcement tool. That would be crucial in managing,” the VP President explained.
As part of the government’s crime-fighting strategy, Jagdeo said several police stations will be
boosted with procurement of 40 new vehicles, and ranks exposed to additional training in the
quest to help better advance their skills and knowledge base to better serve their constituents.
“There is an entire plan being rolled out to tackle serious crime and we are looking
aggressively at our national partners in drug enforcement” and transnational law-
breaking, VP Jagdeo indicated.