Security cameras for National Park after gunpoint robbery of jogger

The National Parks Commission is moving to install security cameras and have more off duty police officers in its environs following a report of an armed robbery last Friday morning on a jogger.

“We have purchased some high definition night vision cameras which will be installed around the perimeters and there will be more police presence in the mornings,” Commissioner of the Protected Areas Commission, Damian Fernandes told Stabroek News yesterday.

He explained that last Friday, around 5am, a jogger was robbed, on the park track, at gunpoint of his cell phone and other valuables by a youth on a bicycle.

Fernandes said that the armed robbery was the first of its kind for the National Park but that there had been a spate of break-ins on vehicles in the afternoons. He said that added security personnel were placed in the park in the afternoons and they are currently looking to have the same service in the mornings.

According to Fernandes persons would park their cars in the afternoons and others, pretending to go into the public recreational facility to exercise, would scout the areas until it was clear and break into the vehicles of mostly persons who would have come directly from work. He said the increased security presence seemed to quell that problem but now it is robberies on persons exercising in the mornings.

He is calling on users of the park to report to the nearest security personnel any suspicious activity they notice, and be especially vigilant of persons on bicycles. This is because most of the robberies reported at the park have been by persons riding a bicycle.

He said that the Guyana Police Force has also promised an increased police presence in the area in the mornings.