Police mulling set up of cold case, gun crime units

As part of efforts to increase its capacity, the Guyana Police Force is looking to establish a cold case unit, a gun crime investigations unit and a cyber-crime investigations unit, according to Police Commissioner Seelall Persaud.

Persaud, who will retire in a few weeks having served the force for over three decades, made the disclosure during the opening ceremony of the Police Officers’ Annual Conference on Thursday at Eve Leary. The conference, which ended yesterday, was held under the theme, “Forging ahead with Effective Policing through Strategic Human Resources, Operational Management, Partnership and Professionalism.”

Giving an overview of the past year, Persaud informed that at the end of 2017 the police force’s records for reports of serious crime showed a decrease of 10% compared with the previous years. “I know that from time to time these statistics are questioned but I would like to say that they are reported statistics and that there are always a number of crimes that are unreported. Those are referred to as the dark figure of crime,” he said, while noting that what is released reflects reported crimes.

In particular, he said that there were significant decreases in murders, gun-related robberies, and break and enter and larceny as well as road fatalities and traffic violations.

According to Persaud, 2017 also saw the entrance of 471 recruits into the force as well as 572 ranks benefiting from training, some of which was sponsored by the United States Embassy.

The force also received 140 vehicles through a grant from the Chinese government and 170 bicycles and training in bicycle patrolling from the United States government. These additional resources, Persaud said, are “likely to have a greater impact on crime prevention, crime detection, traffic control and response time.”