More than 68 per cent of the serious crimes that occurred this year were recorded in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) with 2235 cases being reported throughout the country between January 1 and October 31, 2019. This figure represents a decrease with 2292 cases recorded last year for the corresponding period. This is according to acting Crime Chief, Senior Superintendent Michael Kingston, who stated that a whopping 41.3 per cent of the total serious crimes took place in the Georgetown Sub-Division of Region Four alone. He noted that Region Four Sub-Division (C) East Coast Demerara has recorded 14.6 per cent of serious crimes followed closely by Region Four Sub-Division (B) East Bank Demerara with 12.8 per cent. “Followed by the other Divisions, Region Five (5.7 per cent), Region Two (3.1 per cent), Region Six with 6.4 per cent and we are very minimal in Regions One, Seven, Eight and Nine.” Kingston elaborated that as it relates to the total serious crimes as per month for the year 2019 from January 1, the GPF recorded 254 crimes of this nature in the first month of the year but saw a reduction to 240 in February. The figures fluctuated for the following months. “March we were able to reduce serious crimes to 213. In April and May we went up by 230 and then within the June-July period we were able to come down to 199, in August we went up by 204 and in September we made a huge jump to 257. In that jump, we recognised that there was a balloon effect in some areas and as result we went back to the drawing board almost immediately through our intelligence apparatus. And we were able to reduce it to 208 in the month of October,” the acting Crime Chief said. Spike in murders and larceny However, despite the overall figure for 2019 displaying a reduction in serious crimes in comparison to statistics from last year, there was a notable spike in murders and larceny from the person categories. This year saw a 35.7 per cent increase with 114 murder cases in comparison to 2018’s 84 cases. Meanwhile, with 159 cases of larceny from the person in 2019, there was a 31.4 per cent increase when compared to last year’s record of 121 cases of this nature countrywide. As it relates to robbery under arms where instruments were used instead of firearms, in 2018 there were 202 reports. This year, to date, there have been 257 occurrences, a 27.2 per cent spike. Additionally, burglary crimes have risen by 7.9 per cent with 164 cases reported for 2019 thus far when compared to the 152 cases last year.
