Guyana will unveil the national crime observatory on March 17

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Guyana will unveil the national crime observatory on March 17, Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee has announced.He said that one of the strategies being used in modern day democracies to confront crime in a methodical and analytical manner is the establishment of crime observatories.Rohee said that this arrangement enables policy makers and law enforcement agencies to identify crime trends, examine its causes, and arrive at objective solutions to the problem.A proper functioning crime observatory provides the critical analytical data which enables policy makers and law enforcement agencies to adopt the right methods of intervention, both from a Law Enforcement and social action perspective, to address the crime situation, Rohee noted.In Guyana, the crime observatory has been established at the Ministry of Home Affairs, through the Citizen Security Programme.  The observatory has begun to provide data on crime and traffic in the country.In January 2010, the first meeting of a High Level Policy Committee of the Crime Observatory, was held at the Ministry of Home Affairs, to examine the operations of the Crime Observatory at which the work of the Crime Observatory for 2009 was reviewed and the Work Programme for 2010 was discussed. Rohee said the Ministry of Home Affairs last year made strides in its quest to strengthen its capacity to have oversight of the agencies under its purview.One of the components of the Citizens Security Programme caters for the institutional strengthening/modernisation of the Ministry to enable it to be in a better position to achieve its mandate.Minister Rohee said that the establishment of two task forces continue to promote the concept of “jointness” and co-operation among law enforcement agencies in the country.These are the Task Force on Fuel Smuggling and Contraband and the Task Force on Narcotics and Illegal Weapons.Since the formation of the Task Forces, there has been much greater collaboration among the Agencies involved in combating drugs and the smuggling of firearms, fuel and other types of goods, Rohee stated.According to the Minister, the successes that the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA) has been achieving recently in seizing illegal fuel and interdicting persons could be attributed, in no small measure, to the co-operation among the respective agencies.The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) has also announced that there have been reductions of smuggling in the country, while at the same time admitting that more work has to be done.