The Guyana Police Force has noted a sharp increase in some categories of crime, but has indicated that overall, serious crimes have seen a 14.4% decline so far for this year when compared with the same period last year.

The update was given by Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum earlier this morning as the Police Force unveiled its Christmas security plan.

“Overall, there were 175 less crime reports recorded for the current period 2024 when compared to the previous period in 2023. Notably, there were decreases in six out the 10 categories of serious offences. We have witnessed declining trends for the offence of murders. Last year we saw a spike in murders largely due to the unfortunate incident that took place in Mahadia,” Blanhum said.

The Crime Chief said the most prevalent crimes in Guyana, break and enter and larceny, also declined during the period. However, the Force has noted an 11% increase in gun robberies, while robbery with aggravation increased by 33%.

Additionally, reports of rape went up by 8.3%, while burglary cases increased by over 15%.

“Collectively, or taken as a whole, the effect of these crime statistics led to a 14.4% reduction in serious crime reports for the current period when compared to the period last year,” Blanhum noted.

The Crime Chief was quick to point out that the crime statistics do not indicate that there is no crime taking place in the country, adding that over thousand serious offences were recorded so far for this year alone, as opposed to over 1,200 in total last year. 

The highest number of criminal activities were recorded in Region 4 and Region 6, which the Crime Chief described as unprecedented noting that there was never such a situation in that part of Berbice where it is competing with Police district 4 ‘A’.

Berbice saw almost double the amount of gun robberies when compared to last year, and Region 3 also saw an increase in serious crimes.

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