THE police Flying Squad will over the next two weeks carry out a series of operations in the Corporate Area to track down persons accused of a number of kidnappings and rapes in the city.

“The deputy commissioner of crime and the deputy commissioner of operations mandated the task force to take on the challenge of dealing with this problem as a result of the increased panic among citizens,” Deputy Police Superintendent Cornwall ‘Bigga,’ Ford, head of the Flying Squad, told the Observer last Friday.

Havendale, Hughenden, Hope Pastures, Mona and other areas in which the police have received reports of kidnappings will be targeted by the police in their operations, Ford said.

“Persons are in fear and what we want to do is to target these criminal elements and at the same time reassure the public of our presence and that they are safe. We will be patrolling the communities both in marked and unmarked vehicles to capture the perpetrators,” Ford said.

When asked if divulging information about the operations would defeat its purpose, Ford said: “It is a win/lose situation, ’cause we want members of the public to feel reassured about their safety but at the same time we don’t want the criminals to move elsewhere. What we are hoping for though is that with knowing that we are in the community, citizens will be more comfortable in assisting the police in catching the culprits.”

At the same time, the police high command has asked citizens not to panic as a number of the reports of kidnapping were false. The police said, too, that the number of abductions this year were lower than 2007, when 125 cases were reported up to the end of October, compared to 57 this year.