Senior Superintendent Michael Kingston will now serve as the Commander of Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni), as the hierarchy of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) continues to see a major transformation under the new PPP/C government.
Kingston, who previously held the post of Crime Chief (ag), will be replacing Senior Superintendent Ramesh Ashram. Ashram, who is now the country’s Traffic Chief.
Former Traffic Chief Linden Isles has since been placed to head Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne).
Isles replaced Senior Superintendent Calvin Brutus, who has been reassigned and is now performing the duties of Deputy Commissioner Paul Williams. Williams proceeded on 192 days annualised vacation leave earlier this week.
Kingston was named acting Crime Chief in July last year after former Crime Chief Lyndon Alves was placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation into the exposure of a network of alleged corruption in the then Guyana Police Force’s ‘B’ Division (Berbice).
However, while Alves was cleared of any criminal conduct in the investigation, he remained on administrative leave which ran into his retirement
Prior to this, in 2015, Senior Superintendent Wendell Blanhum was appointed Crime Chief by former President David Granger.
In 2017, Blanhum was reassigned from being Crime Chief to being second-in-charge of ‘A’ Division and later served in the force Projects Unit before taking up command of Region One.
Blanhum’s reassignment was controversial since it closely followed the completion of a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into an alleged assassination plot against Granger.
The CoI had specifically recommended that the officers that played a key role in the investigation of the alleged plot, including Blanhum, be reassigned, possibly to positions outside of the police force based on their conduct.
At the time, the subject minister Khemraj Ramjattan had said Blanhum’s removal from the post of Crime Chief was not a demotion and that he was a “serious pillar” in the GPF and had done a “fantastic job” in the post.
Blanhum is now back as the Crime Chief. Since the swearing in of President Irfaan Ali on August 2rd, there have been changes in the hierarchy of the force with a number of senior ranks being reassigned.
It began with Top Cop Leslie James and Deputy Commissioner Maxine
Graham proceeding on pre-retirement leave. Deputy Commissioner Nigel Hoppie is now performing duties as the Police Commissioner. It remains unclear whether Hoppie’s elevation is permanent or temporary.
New Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn recently told Stabroek News that the changes within the force are not completed and more are expected. “We are still doing some changes. I am not discussing it right now,” he had said.
