On Saturday, Minister of Home Affairs, Robeson Benn set out a policy for the Guyana Police Force (GPF), the Guyana Prisons Service and the Guyana Fire Service with emphasis on the GPF.
According to a statement from the GPF, the elements adumbrated in the policy included:
-The need for Police to exercise impartiality and sensitivity in the execution of their duties, noting that Guyana is made of people from diverse religious, social and racial backgrounds.
– The implementation of a 10-point improvement strategy for all Divisions, Branches and Departments within the three Services.
-The need to implement a mechanism that allows feedback from members of the public as to their perception of the quality of service offered, especially by the GPF.
– The need to assess and improve on the treatment of prisoners in custody.
-The need to retrain and re-engage errant ranks for behavioural correction as a first step.
-The need for ranks to be equipped with the appropriate tools and training when responding to scenes of accidents and incidents.
According to the statement, Mr Benn reassured those in attendance of his “Government’s commitment to equipping the organisations under his Ministry with the right tools and targeted training to guarantee improved service delivery to all Guyana”.
Not unexpectedly, the PPP/C government has entrusted the Home Affairs portfolio to a party veteran. What the public will want to be assured of is that the new PPP/C administration will come equipped with a far different approach to the Home Affairs portfolio than its previous governments between 1992 and 2011.
When APNU+AFC entered office in 2015 there were high expectations that it would professionalise the police and prisons service and restrain the political control that had severely weakened law enforcement. Minister Ramjattan ended his term with no appreciable change in the circumstances and with an atrocious record as it relates to the prisons: seventeen prisoners dying in the Camp Street prison conflagration of 2016, the demolishing of the entire Camp Street complex by fire in 2017 and more recently a fire at the Lusignan Prison which was thankfully rapidly contained. The carnage on the roads continued and corruption in the force remained in evidence. The selection of the hierarchy of the police force was politically controlled with former President Granger applying criteria that were opaque and questionable. Minister Ramjattan finally demitted office just at the point of what could be one of the worst excesses of the GPF during the period – the wanton firing of weapons at a car being chased resulting in the death of one man and the paralysing of another. Two policemen have since been charged with murder in connection with this matter.
Minister Benn would be aware that the failure of PPP/C governments to professionalise the police force contributed to epic departures in the maintenance of law and order beginning with the botched probe into the death of Monica Reece and culminating in the sub-contracting of narcotics dealer Roger Khan to prosecute the crime fight against the rampaging escapees from the 2002 Camp Street jail-break and their willing cohorts enabled by sections of the society. The breakdown of law and order from 2002 to 2006, in particular, undermined the fabric of society and it has not recovered from this. The three massacres in 2008 underlined this.
Guyana is not going back in that direction and it is a reality that the PPP/C should take to heart even as it recalls the reasons why the UK was forced to withdraw the Guyana Security Sector Reform Action Plan under the Jagdeo administration in October 2009. Moreover, the transformation that is required in the police force has been discussed at length and reported on voluminously going all the way back to the seminal Symonds report of 1993 which underlined the sine qua non of intelligence-led policing.
There is no need to reinvent the wheel. An important juncture already beckons with the looming substantive appointment of a police commissioner. This will be a test of both President Ali and Minister Benn. The person at the top of the force will determine how the GPF conducts itself in the coming years. It requires a professional whose record is unblemished and who will set their face unremittingly against the scourge of corruption and hold all accountable to this standard.
In the meanwhile, Minister Benn and the police force have their work cut out for them.
On a daily basis across the country, dozens of members of the public continue to be besieged particularly in the hours of darkness by marauding thieves on the roads. It is a broadly underreported phenomenon because of the futility of securing results from the police force but it is one of those developments that undermines the confidence of the public in the GPF, deepens cynicism and erodes law and order. Does the police force have a plan to address this problem? It requires boots on the ground.
Calls to police lines to report emergencies go unanswered or continue to evoke dismay. In the midst of distress, callers are often given `hard card’ or redirected to some other number. This is intolerable. Police stations remain hopelessly ill-equipped to respond to emergency calls. Usually there is no transport available. If there is the relevant personnel are not present. This is not a recent occurrence but has been prevalent in recent decades and remains unaddressed.
The GPF is largely incapable of tackling organised crime and the occurrence of execution-style killings. It remains the case that the force can prosecute swiftly for small amounts of ganja but has great difficulty compromising the cocaine route and ensuring conviction of drug lords.
The remuneration of members of the police force and the improvement of their working conditions have to be urgently addressed.
Minister Benn faces a tall order. The security of the public and its peace of mind depends on whether he is able to make potent changes.
