Murder rate up by 18.7% – police

Nov 21, 2023 News

Kaieteur News – The murder rate in Guyana has climbed to 18.7% when compared to last year, the Guyana Police Force has revealed.

At the same time, serious crimes across the country have declined from 1397 to 1149 this year, representing a reduction of 17.8%. Overall for this year, there have been 25 more people murdered which takes the total murder for the year to 133 in comparison to last year’s 108, amounting to an 18.7% increase.

The Guyana Police Force last week released their crime data January 1^st to November 13, 2023. The data released shows comparative figures for 2022 and 2023. Serious crimes were broken down into ten categories and each category showed reduction from last year’s number with kidnapping remaining at zero. The detailed data went on to breakdown the serious crimes by police division as well as region. For this year, Region 4A saw the highest number of serious crimes combined from each of the 10 categories at a staggering 255. Region 4B followed with 179, Region 3 with 177, and Region 6 with 176. Region 2 has the lowest with a total of 22 serious crimes committed for the year up to November 13^th.

The police statistics also show that robbery offences recorded a 15 percent decrease; robbery under arms saw a 23 percent decrease; robbery with violence 33 percent; larceny from the person decreased by 33 percent while an 11.6 percent decrease was recorded for rape offences for the year.

Moreover, the most prevalent offence which is break and enter and larceny recorded a 15 percent decrease, while there were no recorded offences of kidnapping in Guyana for the year. “The Guyana Police Force continues to be proactive in combatting firearms-related matters, by aggressively cracking down on illegal networks that supply guns to criminals,” the Crime Chief, Wendell Blanhum said.

Additionally, the Force seized 1,425 kilogrammes (3,141 lbs) of cannabis, the largest quantity confiscated within the past five years. As a consequence of these seizures, a total of 188 persons were charged and placed before the court. Meanwhile, about 14 police ranks were charged with varying criminal offences for the same period, demonstrating the Force’s commitment to accountability and transparency.

• crime, crimes, Guyana Police Force, murder rate, Statistics