Georgetown: as Crime escalates Head of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Wendell Blanhum is urging businesses to take the necessary precautions to ensure that their premises are secured.
At the time, Blanhum was speaking about the recent spate of robberies at the Popeye’s Restaurant on Vlissengen Road, which was the target again last Wednesday. The Crime Chief has expressed his disgust with businesses that are not cognisant of the safety of not only their employees but their customers as well. He is therefore calling on businesses to put appropriate security measures in place.
“It’s not only about having CCTV (Close Circuit Television) cameras. You cannot be a victim of robbery over and over, and nothing is being done about it. You have to ensure that you put certain mechanisms in place and you need to ensure that you employees and mostly customers are protected,” he stated.
According to the Crime Chief, the Police have recently arrested and charged several persons for a previous robbery at the same fast food outlet, adding that these persons are still in prison. He stated that the fast food outlet has been a frequent target for robberies and it’s frustrating for Police to see that no steps are being taken to protect the premises.
Blanhum declared “At times it can be very frustrating to the Police, in that we have to expend our resources to deal with something that has been ongoing and no sort of consciousness as it relates security on behalf of the businesses is displayed. They are not looking into their interests. They need to ensure that they implement certain security mechanisms… to prevent such incidents from occurring.”
On the other hand, the Crime Chief recognised that the Guyana Police Force has been doing better in its investigations department, which is resulting in more perpetrators being brought to justice. He noted that many factors have attributed to this success.
Blanhum specifically mentioned that the Force has intensified its intelligence capability and is working with members of the public who are assisting with providing information investigators. Also, he posited that investigating ranks are participating in overseas training programmes and would implement the knowledge they would have gained in the investigations. He added too, that investigators are consistently being trained locally, which contributes to the successes in the high profile cases.
Public trust
Moreover, the Head of the CID underscored that public trust played an integral part in this search, noting that the Police depend on information from the public during their investigations and this has been forthcoming. This, he said, is reflective of all the social work the Force has embarked on to regain the public’s confidence.
“We will continue to work with members of the public and that is why we have so much of the social crime prevention programmes, we have community outreaches involving the Police and members of the public, and the whole objective is to build trust, so as long as the public has some amount of trust in the Police, they will come forward with the information that is needed,” he posited.
Furthermore, speaking about the public’s distrust of the Police Force as it relates to the timeliness and closure of investigations, the Crime Chief pointed out that all murder investigations are treated with strict priority.
He explained that the Force is actively dealing with pending investigations which include reviewing statements, seeking legal advice and engaging persons of interests.
“We are doing the work, but not everything we put in the public domain. We might have a suspect and if we put that information out in the public domain and that suspect is alerted, it can jeopardise our investigations,” he outlined.
The Crime Chief also indicated that he has noticed much mention of “cold cases” in the Force. He noted that there are ongoing investigations where the Police would have been provided with the names of persons of interest and would have since issued wanted bulletins for them.
Blanhum further explained that he has instructed that copies of those bulletins be placed at strategic locations across the country, with emphasis on interior locations. Additionally, he stated that these bulletins are forwarded to regional law enforcement bodies.
The growing skepticism of the citizenry for the Police Force stems from the recent increase in crime and the Force’s inaptitude to contain and respond to criminal offences in a timely and professional manner. One such case that remains is the murder of businessman Ganesh Ramlall who was murdered at his West Coast Demerara home in July. According to the family of the victim, the Police took over three hours to arrive at the crime scene.
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