Twenty-three officers from the joint services and the City Constabulary have begun an eight-week training course, which will provide them with the skills and knowledge to produce performance of the highest standard in the execution of their duties.
The eighteenth Junior Officers’ Course was officially opened yesterday during a simple ceremony held at the Lloyd Barker Hall Police Officers’ Mess, Eve Leary.
A part of the two-module course, is being supported by the University of Guyana, which has provided lecturers. Lecturers for the other part of the course will be drawn from serving and past members of the force, security services, legal and medical professionals, politicians, government agencies and individuals.
Acting Police Commissioner Henry Greene thanked the university for its ongoing cooperation, which has been extended to the special prosecutors’ course, as well as other agencies including the Georgetown Technical Institute, which has been helping the force with training.
During his feature address, Greene pointed out everything is done to shape recruits in six months to make them policemen, but some fail and others do well, which all depends on how quickly they can absorb what is being taught.
He pointed out that if “the learning” takes place readily then it would be much easier for ranks to perform satisfactory.
Greene told the gathering that while the law clearly outlines the role of the police officer, the most important one is the enforcement of all the laws in this country, adding that the “average” police-training course cannot deal with issues such as domestic violence.
“That is why even though we hold our courses, we recognise the importance of lecturers that are policemen and lecturers [from] society who can bring to bear on us certain supervisory qualities, certain other skills we need to have and attract in order to be effective as policemen and policewomen,” he said.
He called on the public to continue giving the force support pointing out that it always welcomed those persons who were always willing to train and help ranks.
Greene said officers were continuously being trained in areas such as trafficking in persons, domestic violence, etiquette, telephone courtesy and many other areas, but there is lot more training that was needed.
“How do we cope? The average police training cannot handle that. We have to have training help from you the members of the public. You who are not policemen but have the skills, the knowledge, the attitude and the values that we need so that this force can develop and grow.”
Speaking directly to the officers, he said that it was a privilege to be a selected for the Junior Officers’ Course. A former product of the course himself, he recalled that in his time, the course was three months and they had to endure long hours and hard work. Although today it has been reduced to two months, he said it “still remains a course to be reckoned with”.
Deputy Superintendent E McCammon in giving the course overview said that it was first held in 1976.
He pointed out that currently the force is embarking on a course to target, middle managers from the rank of inspector to assistant superintendent.
According to McCammon, the first objective of the Junior Officers’ Course is to provide participants with the necessary knowledge, skills, value and attitude that will allow them to understand their role as junior managers in the organisations. The second is to develop managerial and operational capabilities of the participants to enable them to perform at a consistently high standard.
McCammon said that this year, the two-module course covers over 60 subject areas.
The first module which will be done by lecturers from UG covers the functions and role of the manager, target or goal setting, job satisfaction and performances, leadership styles, use of language and writing skills among other areas, while Module Two among other topics will deal with financing procedures, separation and marking of exhibits, information technology/computer training.
During the course, participants will be given particular topics to research on which they will have to present a long paper. They will also be engaged in one hour of physical exercise, twice a week as part of the court, he added.
The course will end with a passing out parade.
The seventeen male and six female officers being trained are drawn from the Guyana Police Force, the Guyana Defence Force, the Guyana Prison Service, the Guyana Fire Service and the City Constabulary.
