The new Commander of Region Six, Police Superintendent Jairam Ramlakhan, yesterday announced that New Amsterdam would soon have “24 hours police presence” as part of plans for the region.
“In the New Amsterdam district we will be having a team policing launch sometime next week by which we will have a 24 hours police presence and that by itself will be able to alleviate a lot of issues within this community,” said Ramlakhan, who yesterday toured the town with Deputy Commander Alistair Roberts, Officer-In-Charge of Traffic Timothy Williams and other senior ranks.
“You will be able to see police and leaders of the community working together in order to find common solutions to problems that are existing,” he added.
Additionally, Ramlakhan said that the ranks on patrol will collect information so as to reduce the number of persons who have to visit the police stations.
The commander further stressed that each station in his division will have a station management committee, “because we have to look at the welfare of the ranks, too.”
During his walkabout, some persons voiced concern about the prevalence of loitering in New Amsterdam, while some shoppers asked for increased patrols in their specific villages.
After the walkabout, Ramlakhan told Stabroek News that the police are looking to resuscitate all the community and neighbourhood policing groups “so that they can work in their district instead of the police station because we want to ensure that we have team policing,” especially in areas that are “troublesome.”
He said, that his ranks would not be “sitting behind a desk” and instead would “be out and reach out to members of the community.”
Traffic
Meanwhile, Ramlakhan said he had already given some directives to ranks to ensure that they should not stall traffic by flagging down drivers in groups unless they are suspected of a crime.
“There should not be five, six vehicles pulled in by the traffic ranks at once to check their documents. At any one time only one vehicle should be directed to stop and check, and in the meantime the traffic would flow normally,” he explained.
The commander will be visiting the Port Mourant Market today and the Skeldon area on Sunday.
Additionally, Julius Seenarine, Co-Owner of A Plus Group of Companies, yesterday promised to donate 400 disposable masks to the police in Region Six to ensure they are protected while performing their duties the pandemic.
Members of the business community pledged their support to Commander Ramlakhan.
