The report found an overall increase of 5% in serious crimes at the end of November 2013 in comparison to the same period in 2012.

According to the Police Force, “the total number of reports of serious crimes made between January 01 and November 30, 2013 was 3,690 compared to 3,522 for the same period in 2012. Some of the offences monitored are murder, robbery under arms, robbery with violence, larceny from the person, break and enter and larceny, burglary, rape and kidnapping.”

For the year 2013 so far, a total of 130 murders were recorded at the end of November 2013 in comparison to 126 murders for the same period in 2012. That figure represents a 3% increase.

“Of the 130 murders this year, 52 were of the disorderly type, 21 were committed during armed robberies, 4 were execution type, and 21 were domestic related, while the other 32 are so far undetermined”, the police report said. 

There were a number of murders in the mining district during the month of November.

The Police Force continues to investigate those cases but a lack of resources to fully traverse the mining community may be hampering its work.

The number of armed robberies has also seen an increase as the year comes to an end. The Police report said at the end of November, robbery under arms increased by 7%, with 1,038 reports compared to 971 for the same period in 2012.

According to the Police Public Relations Office, the statistics indicate an increase of 16% in the number of armed robberies involving the use of firearms and a 7% decrease in armed robberies where instruments other than firearms were used by the perpetrators.

Police Commissioner Leroy Brumell in several recent speeches has been promising to “take back the streets” from the criminals. The Police in November, reported that it was able to break up a criminal gang that was born in the Albouystown area.

A number of its members have since been killed in alleged shoot outs with the Police.

The Guyana Police Force continues to come under fire for what many observers see as extra judicial killings. There have been several suspected bandits shot dead over the past two months.

In most of those cases, the police claim that the men had opened fire on them after they received tip offs about the planned robberies and moved in to stop them.

Relatives of the dead men however, believe that the young men were all executed. In many of the cases, eyewitnesses reported that the men were shot at close range by the Police and were not involved in any shoot out although they had previous clashes with the law.

Last Saturday night, two young men who the Police claim were suspected bandits were shot dead during another alleged “shoot-out” with the police. Only one gun was recovered from the scene and no police officer sustained any injury during the apparent cross fire. Both men died from a single gunshot to the head.

The Commissioner of Police has ordered a full probe into the latest Police killing as eyewitnesses reported that the men were executed by the Police.