At the end of September 2015 the Guyana Police Force recorded a 10% increase in serious crimes in comparison to the same period in 2014, the police said yesterday in a release.
Among the serious crimes policed by the Force are murder, robbery under arms, robbery with violence, robbery with aggravation, larceny from the person, break and enter and larceny, burglary, rape, and kidnapping.
The police said that a total of 114 murders were recorded at the end of September 2015 in comparison to 109 murders at the end of September 2014, an increase of 5%. Up to Monday three more murders were recorded.
At the end of September 2015 robbery under arms overall was up by 3% in comparison to the same period in 2014. The statistics indicate a rise of 4% in the number of armed robberies involving the use of firearms; while a decrease of 1% was recorded in the number of armed robberies where instruments other than firearms were used by the perpetrators.
The police also apologised for incorrect statistics that were published in relation to rape for August. Following advice received from the Police Legal Advisor, the release said it was recognised that there was a recent flaw in the recording process for the offence of rape.
The statistics have since been adjusted and reveal that there has been an increase of 19% in the number of reports of rape, with 224 reports at the end of September this year compared to 188 for the same period last year.
Originally, the police had said that 243 reports of rape were received up to the end of July.
Break and Enter and Larceny and Burglary have shown an overall rise of 14%.
Unto the end of September this year, a total of 89 illegal firearms were recovered by the police comprising 1 sub-machine gun, 47 pistols, 24 revolvers, 10 shotguns, 6 rifles and 1 pen-gun. This compares to a total of 60 illegal firearms up to the same time last year.
