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By Mark DaCosta- Guyanese will agree that crime is one of our country’s biggest problems. This includes everything, from corruption in the corridors of political power to street robberies to domestic violence. International organisations agree with this assessment. For example, on its website, under the heading, ‘Crime Rate by Country 2022’, the world-renowned compilation of statistics on crime states: “Guyana has the eighth-highest crime rate worldwide of 68.74, and a murder rate of about four times higher than that of the United States.
Considering the facts, it is imperative that action be taken. First, though, the problem must be understood.
This series of articles will attempt to deconstruct and analyse the issue, examine its various facets, articulate recommendations that are in the public domain by at least one security expert – Mr. Fairbairn Liverpool – and explore the reasons why those recommendations have not been implemented.
First, though, what is crime? A crime is any act or omission that is a legal offence, and which is punishable under law.
Mr. Liverpool writes:
“Crime and violence not only threaten the security of our citizens and their assets but present a clear and present danger to development and nation building in the Caribbean. If unchecked, the forces, which undermine the rule of law, will render the very institutions designed to uphold the law, incapable of and life in the region would become untenable. Police corruption and abuse have been pinpointed, not without some justification, as one of the principal reasons for the decline in law and order in the Caribbean.
“Indeed, police corruption is a universal problem, a fact which has perhaps contributed significantly to ongoing research on the topic and made it the single most researched topic in policing globally. Fingers have been pointed in the direction of the police as being perhaps the major players in this game, but are the police really the culprits? The search for solutions to the problem has led Caribbean Governments and their Police Forces to seek the assistance of and be guided by the expertise of international police authorities.
“Through this means, the remedies attempted by Member States have focused on reform measures that tend to rely on a set of contextual conditions based on studies of blue-ribbon commissions not commonly found in the small states that comprise the Caribbean Community. They, by and large, have produced limited results because crime and violence in the Region continues to worsen.”
In other words, Mr. Liverpool writes that crime prevents development. He identifies corruption within the Police Force as a cause of the high rate of crime, he implies, though, that there are other “culprits.” And, he says that the situation continues to get worse because our governments continue to rely on mitigation measures that are designed for and employed by developed territories, and such measures are not appropriate to our small state context. As a small, Caribbean country, we need solutions that fit our specific needs.
Who is Mr. Fairbairn Liverpool?
Mr. Liverpool is a graduate of The Royal Military Academy of Sandhurst in England, Fairbairn Liverpool, has had considerable experience in command and staff as a Military Officer in the Guyana Defence Force (GDF). He commanded from a Platoon to the Brigade and served in various staff appointments ultimately becoming the Force’s First Adjutant General. Seconded to the Guyana Public Service as Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs, he was the Administrative Head of its several departments which included the Guyana Police Force, the Guyana Prison Service and the Guyana Fire Service.
He initiated strategic planning in the Ministry and was the architect of Guyana’s First Drug Control Strategy. During graduate studies at Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, he conducted extensive research in policing, working in a directed study with Professor Dennis Forces, the then Head of the Centre of Community Policing Studies at the University. In the last twelve years of his professional career, Liverpool was the first Regional Coordinator for Crime and Security within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and was based at the CARICOM Secretariat in Georgetown, Guyana.
In the next (second) article in this series, we will examine specific causes of crime in the context of Guyana and the Caribbean. And some relevant recommendations will be touched upon.
In the third article, the recommendations will be examined in detail, and the political failures that have caused the problem will be explored.
