Georgetown: As crime increases several new Community Policing Groups (CPGs) will soon be established in Regions five and six.
This follows the massive ‘Government comes to you’ outreaches held in those regions recently. Administrator of the CPGs, Dennis Pompey said “we were able to identify persons who are willing to form groups based on the crime situation in their respective communities. It also helps us to understand what is happening in the various communities,” he explained.
Pompey noted that two groups, each from the Corentyne and West Coast of Berbice, have made requests adding that he has already outlined for them the procedures they need to follow in forming the groups. The administrator said that he is optimistic that by next week, the groups in the Corentyne should be formed.
The outreaches, according to Pompey, are a major plus for the expansion of the CPGs countrywide stating that “it helps up to improve and expand on community policing in the various regions.”
Community Policing Groups have, over the years, played an integral role in assisting the Guyana Police Force (GPF) to clamp down on serious crimes. This was credited largely to the continued expansion of the CPGs countrywide.
During of the rollout of the CPGs 43rd anniversary earlier this year, Pompey stated that “this has helped us uncover intelligence of prime criminal activities such as the carjacking ring that was dismantled on the East Coast and the Soesdyke Linden Highway, an illegal airstrip in Region nine, also in Kwakwani we were able to recover stolen equipment such as outboard engines.”
Additionally, it was revealed that Guyana’s borders are now strengthened with the establishment of Community Policing Groups (CPGs) in several hinterland regions. Additionally, in 2017, there were just over 5,000 patrols carried out by CPGs compared to over 9,000 carried out in 2018, a significant increase which has proven to be fruitful.
Meanwhile, Guyana’s capacity to investigate and prosecute crime has been deemed below-average by a recently released report from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
The report ‘Smart Spending on Citizen Security, Beyond Crime and Punishment’ compares the various security capacities of different countries in the region.
In statistics that detail countries’ capacity to apprehend suspects and process and sanction without undue delay, Guyana’s 32 per cent capacity to effectively investigate and 42 per cent capacity to speedily prosecute is ranked behind Suriname, Barbados, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Saint Lucia, and Saint Kitts and Nevis as at 2017.
The statistics particularly show that the aforementioned countries, including Jamaica, carry out more effective investigations than Guyana does.
However, Guyana ranks better than several countries, including Venezuela, Bolivia, the Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.
While the report’s statistics show that Trinidad and Tobago, Brazil and Panama are marginally better than Guyana at investigating crime, Guyana is better rated when it comes to the judicial aspect of dealing with criminals.
“High levels of (crime) are related to the low capacity to apprehend and prosecute offenders (effective investigation), as well as to judge and sanction the accused (effective adjudication). The average of both for the region is a startlingly low 38 per cent, compared to the United States (74 per cent) or Spain (70 per cent). Again, this measure varies widely in the region,” the report notes.
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