Police ranks over the years have received both local and overseas training in various areas which have been identified as being critical to the reform of the Guyana Police Force but the results of the time and money being dedicated to the success of these programmes are not really being seen.
In addition to the rise in serious crimes that remain unsolved, reports of alleged police brutality are also increasing.
Ranks have received training in the areas that include crime scene investigation, evidence gathering, interrogation, leadership and management.
Earlier this month, 35 law enforcement officers successfully completed two five-day courses hosted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on combating transnational crime. During the training, which began on June 16, the officers learnt a multitude of skills, including active listening, interrogation strategies, the taking of statements, and body language analysis.
Earlier in the year the officers travelled to the Police Academy in Trinidad and Tobago to attend courses taught by both FBI and Trinidadian instructors.
Officers have also received Special Weapons and Tactics training; the first phase of this exercise was completed earlier this year.
Last Friday, an opening ceremony was held for 26 junior officers from the joint services, who will undergo leadership and management training. Among the areas these middle managers will explore are stress, anger management and new media.
One security official told Stabroek News that what has to be addressed is the quality of the ranks being sent on these training programmes. He added that the force as well as the trainees need to understand and accept that putting into practice what they have learnt is important.
He said that at the end of the training, you will get a certificate but that is not the end of the road. The official said it continues until the rank’s career ends as it is expected that what he/she has learnt will be put into practice.
He said the force too has a responsibility to ensure it trains ranks who can function and have a certain level of intellectual ability. “It must not be ranks who will just grab their certificate and go,” the official pointed out, adding that from his observation there is no evidence to show that the force administration is “choosing wisely” who is sent on these training programmes.
“One has to ask in the case of the FBI training… what is the criteria used to attend a training like that?” he said, while also questioning if there is a yardstick used to measure who meets the basic level requirements to attend these courses and whether they can be depended on to improve their performance and by extension the force’s image, once the training programme ends.
The official said that based on past experience, some ranks don’t get to complete the courses they are on. “They are called away to do other (police) duties. How can this be allowed to happen? If you are sending a rank to be trained, you have to let him stay from beginning to end. When they go to training overseas that is not interrupted so why can’t that happen here?” the official questioned.
The official said this is a clear indication that the administration of the force is not serious about training of the ranks so as to benefit the force.
Theory and practice
He said putting what the ranks have learnt into practice is another cause for concern. “People seem not to understand that there is a link between theory and practical… people just leave the course and continue to do what they have been doing all the time. There is no change in attitude, no attempt to apply what they have learnt,” the official said, adding that while ranks are trained on how to interview a suspect, there continues to be situations where people leave police stations bruised and battered. “You have received this training…. so why would you want to throw methylated spirits on a man’s hand and set it alight? That makes no sense. It means that … the ranks are not applying what they have learnt and the managers of these stations are not applying the leadership and management skills they would have learnt,” the official said, adding that this situation needs to be carefully assessed before any more money is wasted on these training exercises.
The official acknowledged that in organisations such as the police force, training is essential, especially since police officers have to deal with the public constantly but at the moment it is turning into a big joke as there is nothing to suggest that what they are being taught is being applied.
According to the official, the essence of the theory learnt is lost as it is not applied when the ranks return to their respective stations. He suggested that it would be better to select a small number of the brightest ranks to be trained as opposed to taking 35 who have no clue how to apply what they have learnt or have no interest in doing so.
Another security source told Stabroek News that one has got to understand that police reform cannot happen overnight. “You can’t see a change in the force immediately. It takes time. To some it may look like what we are learning is not being applied, but it is and it will take some time for it to be seen,” the source said, while stressing that while many who undergo training sessions have the drive to apply what they have learnt, often they don’t get the support of their superiors and that is where the problem lies.
The source said it is important for ranks to be continuously trained. He added that often junior ranks behave professionally when in the company of the senior ranks but as soon as their backs are turned they do the opposite of what they have been taught. He said in instances like that, when the junior ranks mess up, the senior ranks who have followed all procedures and the rules are penalised and become outcasts. He said that in this regard it may be essential for the junior ranks to be more exposed to training sessions and they are the ones who interact with the public more and who have to conduct investigations.
Retired Assistant Commissioner Clinton Conway, in a letter to Stabroek News, published in February this year, spoke of the large sums of money that government has been investing to reform the force, focusing on training and other related areas and pointed out that they have neglected to focus on other areas, especially the behaviour of ranks.
He said that a lot of emphasis has been placed on technical skills–the organisational skills needed for the force to function—while on the other hand not enough effort has been spent on developing and sustaining excellent people skills.
These training programmes, according to him, must be aggressively sustained to reach all members of the force. Sustainability, he said, is of utmost value to the organisation and a great amount of human and non-human resources must be available to the force training officer in order for him to carry out the training which would be the catalyst for change in the force.
Training and serious crimes
The security official who spoke to Stabroek News noted that there are many execution-style killings that are unsolved even though ranks received training on crime investigation and evidence gathering. The numbers, he said, grow every year.
It was pointed out that even the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had to complain about the poor quality of police investigations.
The official said that it is a longstanding concern that ranks are not investigating crimes in the way that they ought to, resulting in many cases being unsolved. The murder of an Anna Catherina businesswoman and her two children, the source said, is a prime example; and one which was singled out by the DPP.
The official was asked about cases, such as the 2012 murder of Ricardo Rodrigues and a Canadian man Jean Le Blanc, who was shot and injured when gunmen opened fire on Rodrigues, and who died suddenly in hospital. His wound was a minor one and there have been suggestions that he was “silenced.” Rodrigues’ bodyguard, Marlon Osborne, was also killed in a hail of bullets in a separate incident.
According to the official, nothing else has been heard about these matters and he even suggested that there is more to the circumstances surrounding the deaths of these men. According to the source, there are dozens of other matters like these, including the recent execution of fashion designer Trevor Rose.
He questioned whether ranks apply any of their training when investigating these cases and whether they explore every available option before giving up. This newspaper was told that while it is understandable that the police cannot solve every crime, the groundwork that is done during investigations is less than impressive.
“There are basic things that they are taught to do during their initial training and later during other training exercises but yet they don’t apply what they have learnt. You have to ask yourself does it make sense to give them additional training?” the official said, while stressing that this situation calls for urgent discussions between the relevant officials.
“If they don’t do something, what will end up happening is that the force will have dozens of ranks with certificates who have no clue what to do with what they have learnt and are just sitting down wasting time…,” he noted.
He said that the force has to ensure that it gets value for the time and money being pumped into these training sessions.
