The U.S. Department of Justice and the Guyana Ministry of Public Security are working together to provide training to the Guyana Police Force Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) under the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI) Police Integrity Program.
The OPR is the body that investigates complaints against police. It has been criticised in the past as ineffective and not undertaking adequate investigations.
A release from the US Embassy yesterday said that the joint project is designed to boost OPR initiatives in CBSI police agencies including Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, and Barbados.
Via the International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP), former police officers are working with foreign governments to develop professional and transparent law enforcement institutions that protect human rights, fight corruption, and lower the threat of transnational crime and terrorism.
In the programme that runs from August 17-September 3, U.S. officers are providing practical capacity building training in two key areas: Internal Affairs and Audits/Inspections. Since April 2013, the Bureau of International Narcotics & Law Enforcement has deployed DOJ-ICITAP to implement the INL-funded “CBSI Workplan”. This is a three-year police development programme supporting the Regional Security System and its seven member states of the Eastern Caribbean. The OPR project falls within this workplan.
The CBSI partnership with the Caribbean was launched by U.S. President Barack Obama at the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago in April 2009.
