The president, who was addressing the police officers annual conference, said crime fighting is changing and many of the countries that persons hold up as models use intelligence to defeat crime and this is the direction the Guyana Police Force has to take.
He said the law enforcement agencies in those countries have all the tools to pursue their jobs, particularly the legislative and the organizational tools.
According to the president, the government is concentrating on giving the force better tools and he referred to the recent passing of the money laundering Act.
Forfeiture
He also noted that they would expand the capacity to go after persons who benefit from crime and to forfeit their assets.
The question about forfeiting of criminal assets came up repeatedly during drug kingpin Roger Khan’s case in New York. Khan is said to be the owner of several businesses in Guyana.
Soon legislation would also be passed to deal with persons involved in cyber crimes, the president said.
And the head of state, who commended the police force for the good work it has done, stated that those officers who err in the force would have to be dealt with strongly.
But he said many times the good work of the police is not recognised as society often focuses on the negatives and fails to appreciate the hard work and the good things about the force.
“And there are good things that are happening in this country, good things being done by ordinary people, good things being done by many sectors who provide services to our people,” the president said.
He stressed that it is important for people to note that with less resources than their counterparts in the Caribbean, the force has done a better job than them.
“We are going to have instances when we have difficulties in the police force and you have people who don’t act in accordance with the high standards that we expect of this institution and we have to come down hard on them because the image of the police force is more important than the image of a single person,” the president said.
However, Jagdeo made it clear that he will not condemn the entire organization when such difficulties pop up as some persons are prone to do.
“So I just wanted to say that on behalf of all of the people of this country,” the president added.
And adverting to the problem of narcotics, Jagdeo said while there have been “some successes against the bigger drug lords” he has not seen enough effort by the force in tackling the drug houses.
“We know them, the ones that sell drugs in our communities, we know them, they are there. We need to go after them aggressively because these are the ones who are peddling the deaths in our communities…” the president said.
Policy direction
The president, to much hand clapping and feet tapping by the officers, said in spite of the problems the country faces the budgetary allocation for the police force has been increased by one billion dollars.
Jagdeo told the officers that it is not wise to change policy direction and so during his speech he underscored a number of areas he had spoken on over the years.
The president spent a significant portion of his thirty-minute speech informing the officers about financial issues worldwide and how Guyana is doing much better financially than many other Caribbean countries now reeling from the global economic crisis.
He said Guyana managed to “ride last year out” which saw the country’s revenue being increased while it recorded a positive growth. More was also spent on education, health and law enforcement, Jagdeo added.
He stressed, as he did during the recent Guyana Defence Force (GDF) officers conference, that it is important to speak on such issues as those in law enforcement agencies “need in this changing world to understand national public policies.”
Referring to last Monday’s presentation of the $142.8 billion budget, the president said it was launched at a time when there is a great deal of uncertainty about “where the world would go.” He said that depending on where the world goes the national policies may have to be adjusted during the course of the year.
He noted also that the budget was the biggest in the history of the country and while the future looks optimistic, he cautioned that it is important to remain cognizant of the challenges that face the country globally.
“Sometimes some boyish kinds of analysis of the economic situation and some almost amateurish, which sounds good at the first glance, types of solutions [to the economic problems are presented] but what is required is a much deeper understanding of these challenges,” the president said.
