No political motive behind crimes- Police Commissioner

Last Updated on Monday, 14 November 2016, 14:01 by Denis Chabrol

Police Commissioner, Seelall Persaud said there is no indication that there is a political motive behind the recent spate of armed robberies, even as the Guyana Police Force is ramping up its espionage on criminals and their networks.

“People also respond to sentiments expressed in the media thinking that this is a cause they may be helping so indirectly it can have an impact. The question is whether our intelligence is saying that; not it isn’t saying that,” Persaud told a briefing on anti-crime preparations for the Christmas season.

Head of the Criminal Investigations Department, Senior Superintendent Wendell Blanhum announced that the police force would be intensifying its gathering of information on criminals. “We will be doing so with intelligence-led operations. We have the crime analysis and based on that crime analysis we usually spring our intelligence-led operations,” he said.

The Guyana Police Force said most of the crimes being conducted were 667  street robberies and about 1,200 burglaries for the year.

While Executive Member of the Private Sector Commission (PSC), Retired Major General Norman Mc Lean acknowledged that statistically there is a 17 percent reduction in crime, he said the law enforcement agency must consider un-reported crimes because it appears useless and senseless. Mc Lean, a former Defence Force Chief-of-Staff, called or more detective work to be done . “It is very, very important that the police looks at detection work and the results of clear-up particularly in the case of robberies that are taking place,” he said.

The Police Commissioner admitted that the level of crime might be higher because there is a “dark” spot as happens in other countries. “There is always a dark figure in crime. There are always crimes that are not reported and an example of that is consensual crime,” he said. They include drug selling and buying and sexual offences. The Commissioner said one option is for scientific surveys

Persaud credited women organisations for the role that they have played in recent years in educating and convincing females to report sexual offences in their quest for justice.

The Police Commissioner urged employers to guard against employers sharing sensitive information such as the movement of money with new employees