New plague of ‘disorderly’ crime needs more attention – Benn

Serious crimes in Guyana have been on the decline for the past two years, but Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn has underscored the need to tackle the new plague of disorderly crime.
At an event on Tuesday, the Minister stated that much work is needed to understand the approaches in tackling crime. In recent time, there have been reported cases in which disorder escalated to criminal matters, and persons were charged.

“Much of our crime is disorderly crime, and so there are many

approaches we have to take to the problem of crime in Guyana. We have to do better work ourselves as Guyanese to understand who we are; where we go off-track; where we go ballistic; and what are the best options and changes we have to make to avoid situations,” the Minister expressed.
To this end, he shared that efforts should be geared at creating better models for youths to follow, and decrease the types of street activities currently witnessed.
“We want to bring in more penalties. Some of the issues which we see on the streets these days would suggest we have a young population that is reckless. Sometimes adults are not the best examples to our youths, so we have to hand over a new situation and new examples to the next generation,” he explained.
The Minister also pointed towards handling criminal matters differently, through avenues like the Community Policing Groups.
“We are putting quite a large bit of money this year in the Community Policing Groups; over $100 million. We would like the Community Policing Groups, which have expanded to over 7,000 members, to be the eyes and ears to the Police Force, and to have sufficient skills to engage in such a way that would not bring harm to anyone,” he told stakeholders.
During his budget debate last week, Benn stated that as part of the Government’s efforts to improve public trust in local law enforcement agencies, active efforts are being undertaken to ensure that engagements between Police and citizens are less lethal.
The Government’s policies and programmes have seen a 20.6 per cent reduction overall in serious crimes between 2015 and 2022. In fact, in recognition of good policing coupled with professional, well-trained officers being critical to promoting order, safety, and a welcoming environment, some $140 million has been allocated in Budget 2023 to improve the capacities of about 3000 security personnel, which would result in heightened public confidence and support of local law enforcement institutions. (G12)