The Guyana Police Force is reporting a 19% decrease in serious crimes at the end of April this year relative to the same period last year.

In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, the police said there was a 9% reduction in reports of murder; a 9% decrease in gun-related robberies; an 8% decrease in armed robberies where other instruments were used by the perpetrators; a 38% decrease in robberies with violence; a 38% decrease in robberies with aggravation; an 18% decrease in rape; and a 22% decrease in break and enter and larceny.

The stats are being released at a time when there is widespread public opinion that there is a spike in crime.

But according to the police, the reports made in April 2016 represent a 32% decrease against those reported in March this year.

The Force is crediting the slowing down of the crime rate to several initiatives taken by the Government and the Guyana Police Force to manage the crime situation.

Among those efforts are capacity building in the Criminal Investigation Department that is now manifested in perpetrators of high-profile crimes being arrested within two to three days of their occurrence.

“That situation coupled with the social crime prevention programme and our anti-crime patrol systems as well as Government policy initiatives are developing the public trust and reducing the fear of crime in the Guyanese society,” the statement added.

The Police said too that its partnership programmes with civil society organisations and collaboration with local and foreign law enforcement agencies have also served to strengthen the capacity of the Guyana Police Force. “The continuous exposure of our ranks to training both locally and internationally has served to develop the Force’s ability to deliver at the frontline level, at management level and at leadership level.”

At the moment, twelve (12) Assistant Superintendents of the Police Force are attached to the Dade County Police, Miami, for a period of three weeks.

So far for this year thirty-three (33) members of the Force have received training overseas in various aspects of law enforcement, inclusive of a three-month Course in Cyber Crime in India, a three-month Course in Advanced Fingerprint Technology also in India, and an Advanced Crime Scene Investigation Course in Russia.

Locally, another batch of thirty-four (34) new entrants to the Criminal Investigation Department has completed a six-week training programme. This adds to twenty-four (24) ranks who completed an Intelligence Gathering and Analysis Course, twenty (20) ranks who participated in a Narcotics Investigators Course, and another thirty-five (35) who attended a programme on National Protocols for Child Advocacy Centres Multi-disciplinary Teams.

Further, all the Police Divisional Detective Officers and their Second-in-Command along with all the Officers at the Criminal Investigation Department Headquarters were trained by trainers developed by the Justice Education Society (JES) of Canada in Major Crimes Case Management and Investigation.

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