Dear Editor,
Looking at the ‘Part 2 Marudi Mountain police brutality’ I am convinced that poor training severely limited the effectiveness of the Guyana Police Force (GPF). Public confidence in and cooperation with the police will remain low unless the force has a modernization plan with the focus on a path of change.
The mind boggles at the enormity of the attempted beating of an Amerindian woman and her child. If the police corporal involved dares to think about the matter at all, he cannot help coming to the conclusion that whatever was responsible for his action, it was not fairplay.
He will most likely then ask himself, what made it necessary to go to such lengths.
I have had the honour and privilege on several occasions to meet and talk with the Chairman of the Police Complaints Authority (PCA).
He told me that after the PCA receives and investigates a complaint by a police, it sends a report and relevant statements to him and a two-person panel for review. By law the police commissioner must comply with the PCA’s recommendation on complaints.
He told me that the PCA currently relies on the GPF to conduct investigations into complaints against its own officers. According to the Chairman, long delays in getting reports from the Commissioner of Police significantly hamper the complaints process.
Yours faithfully,
Mohamed Khan
