Community Policing Groups to be set up in hinterland, border communities
Community Policing has since expanded its services to the hinterland regions, and will be increasing its presence at border areas across the country, Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan said.
“I want to say that in the Guyana context, the integrating of the community’s needs with police resources to strengthen communities in preventing crime… because of the developments in the border areas… [we need] more CPG (Community Policing Group) formations in these communities, especially when it’s hard to get more policemen into those areas, the supplementary force must be the policing groups,” Ramjattan said, during his remarks at a press conference held in observation of the CPGs’ 43rd anniversary.
He said that as a result of the various CPGs across the country, there has been a positive impact on the reduction of neighbourhood crime, and consequently, an enhancement of residents’ quality of life.
“Of course it is not a perfect system and we will still have our crime, we will still have an element of fear as a result of that imperfect system that we all have but of course the effort of the Community Policing Groups have been in a way, helping to reduce the negatives of crime”, Ramjattan noted.
He stated that his ministry has been offering tremendous support to these groups in terms of providing resources, including ATV’s, vehicles, uniforms and necessary paraphernalia.
“We feel that all of this is all very necessary and of course the Ministry of Public Security has been giving tremendous support to these various groups...because of this, we have been having very high success rates in sharing information with the police in relation to some very serious offences”, he said.
Meanwhile, CPG Administrator Dennis Pompey, charged every citizen to get involved, so as to ensure safety and security through various crime prevention mechanisms.
The CPG has a total membership of about 4,255 active members and consists of 210 groups.
Over the years, Pompey said they have yielded tremendous benefits.
Last year, he said there was an increase in the number of patrols, the number having risen from 5,765 in 2017 to 9,182 in 2018. The patrols included vehicular, foot, riverine and motorcycle patrols.
This, Pompey said, has helped uncover criminal activities, such as the carjacking ring that was dismantled on the East Coast of Demerara and along the Linden/Soesdyke Highway, as well as the discovery of the illegal airstrip, which was found in Region 9.
He added that for the year thus far, the CPG has established groups in non-traditional areas, such as Regions One, Seven and Eight.
In addition, Pompey noted that the CPG continues to engage the youths throughout 35 youth groups that are currently existing within the various divisions.
“We have exposed these youths not only to extracurricular activities but also to lectures on subject matters such as anger management, teenage pregnancy among others”, Pompey said.