Police Commissioner Henry Greene yesterday urged ranks in ‘A’ Division to remain vigilant since criminals have started focusing on “soft targets” as a result of recent police successes.
With a 20% drop in crime recorded for the year so far, Greene said maintaining intelligence around city banks and patrolling business areas are critical.
“We are taking the fight to the criminals. At this time they are struggling to do as they want to do, so what they are doing is looking at soft targets, little trucks around the place. Every now and then, they would start again with the little taxi drivers. The soft targets are not easy for police to come after and to detect,” Greene said yesterday at the ‘A’ Division’s Annual Awards Ceremony and Christmas Luncheon.
There have been several well planned armed robberies committed on households and business persons within the last few weeks. In those incidents, substantial amounts of cash were taken.
Greene told the ranks and other special invitees who gathered at the Brickdam Police Station for the event that often victims delay reporting incidents because of their confused or scared state. “So…you have to be on the lookout for those little drink trucks and vans that are moving, carrying out stocks, doing different things around the place. It is important that you pay attention to those things,” he said, adding that small shops and Chinese restaurants are also “soft targets.”
The importance of maintaining “intelligence around the banks” was also emphasised, with Greene noting that people are withdrawing large sums of money and are then robbed by criminals. “You have to maintain our intelligence presence around those banks and to detect those persons who are bent on following those people who have worked for their hard earned money [and] who have their hard earned money taken away from them,” he noted.
Greene added that the police force has also noticed that quite a lot of people are paying workers on a specific day and time—a pattern that is being observed by criminals. In some instances, he added, the criminals are receiving information from employees. “With those sorts of issues there is very little that we can do about it but we can respond and attempt to see if we can catch the perpetrators and recover stolen property,” Greene said.
He added that the significant reduction in the crime rate for the division is a reflection that the work being done has been very effective. “You know, whenever ‘A’ Division sneezes the crime rates goes up because ‘A’ Division controls or has within it the component of about 60 percent of the crime in this country.
And therefore ever so often what happens in ‘A’ division becomes critical and crucial to our work in the force. Once A`’ Division ensures that the crime rate is down, I think the general crime rate also goes down,” Greene said, while noting that often a lot of excellent work by the ranks goes unnoticed.
He noted that recently no less that 15 motorcycles were added to the patrols around the city. “I told the commanders of those motor cycles that nobody should escape around Georgetown having attempted or committed a crime once it is reported within reasonable time. With the amount of cycles we have spread out throughout the town nobody should be able to escape the net once it is reported in reasonable time,” he added.
Greene told ranks that sometimes he has found that they are not alert as they ought to be. “I want to urge you that during the season that you remain alert and ready and keep your eyes open for anything that is happening.
Anything suspicious that you are noticing don’t wait, call in… It’s better to be wrong than to find that you did not call in and a serious crime was committed,” he noted.
