Admitting that the image of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) needs repairing, President Irfaan Ali yesterday committed to retooling the force to ensure it can keep up with national development.
“…We have to repair our image. We have to repair how we are perceived. We have to repair relationships. We have to repair the organisational structure and we have to repair our brand. Repairing this must be guided by professionalism, must be guided by people and must be guided by patriotism. I am not asking you to do anything extraordinary but to understand what the principal values of our country are,” Ali said.
He was at the time speaking at the Opening of the GPF’s Annual Officers’ Conference, which is being held from March 4th to 6th under the theme ‘Enhancing professionalism, police community relations and confidence through continuous security sector reform and partnerships’.
At the conclusion of the conference, Ali said, there must be a “fresh, people-focused, effective, lean and adaptable” force that is “flexible and fluid enough to respond to a changing world”.
In delivering the feature address, Ali explained that the first step in achieving this goal is identifying the current position of the force and the gaps, both internally and externally.
“You could have the greatest advancement and modernization of the legal system but if you don’t have the corresponding development of the security sector, the police that administers a lot of what happens in the legal system, then you will have a gap and the system looks sluggish where the laws are far in advance as to where we are operating,” he added.
After this, he said an assessment of the force’s capability must also be conducted followed by the implementation of methods to address the existing issues.
“Guyana future is going to change. Are we preparing ourselves for the change or we are transiting in a normal pace to what the future requires us to be? If we are doing that, we are marking time,” Ali said.
The approach outlined, according to Ali, will permit the strengthening of the policing capacity across the country’s ten administrative regions, reintegration of other organisations within the regions and building of the regional intelligence apparatus.
In addition, he said it will allow for quick response to serious crimes with specialised units in each region instead of depending solely on the force’s Major Crimes Unit. “The future would not give us time to send us what is normally termed a high-level team from the Major Crimes Unit to investigate something two days old in a different region. We have to have capacity in the regions,” Ali noted.
According to Ali, the goal of the restructuring process has to be efficiency, effectiveness, and responsiveness. He said it also requires clarity of the vision. “No individual group is running a separate arm of the force. There must be one common vision, one approach, a singular approach that is only confined to service to the people,” he stated.
Stressing on the long-standing issue of the lack of public trust that has plagued the GPF over the years, Ali said the force is required to become “people-oriented” and “unlearn existing habits.”
“You can’t have lone-rangers. You have to act as an organisation, behave as an organisation. You depend on each other,” Ali said while adding, “You can have the best structure but the worst brand. You can have the best and let me say this, the Guyana Police Force has talented, highly qualified, skilled officers and personnel. We are not lacking in that aspect at all. But one of the issues that we have is the brand. You could have the best product but if you have a bad brand you have problems.”
Heavy investment
Over the past seven months, Ali said the Government has invested “heavily” on retooling the organisation.
In moving forward, the president suggested that a SMART (Systems Man-power Attitude Reliability and Technology) POLICING (People, Learning, Integrity, Community, Intelligence, Networking and Goal oriented) initiative be adopted as a guideline.
Ali explained that this approach will see the existing work environment being examined and improvements being made where necessary.
“We have to have better work environments for you. If we want to create the respect, too, we have to build the environment that gives that respect…We have to give the right environment for the right policing,” he stated.
Once this is accomplished, Ali noted, the focus will then have to be shifted to reengineering, in a manner that will lead to efficiency and improved approaches.
Ali told the officers that part of professional conduct is the way in which issues of democracy are approached. “We can set ourselves aside or we can set our mark depending on how we approach these issues. No order that defeats or derail democracy can be an order that uphold the high standards and professionalism of the police force,” he said.
He told the ranks that they can be part of the best force but there are “some boundaries and principles” they should “never cross”.
Similarly, the president related that the system must recognise when officers do their best.
As a result, he pledged government support to prioritise improving the rewards being offered to officers.
“We have responsibilities to recognise you when you perform, to recognise you when you achieve results, to reward you. Our economy will be growing, and I agree that we have to work on making the reward better, and we will make it a priority,” he promised.
Also in attendance at the opening ceremony were Prime Minister, Mark Phillips, Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn, heads of the Joint Services, and senior members of the GPF, including the respective regional commanders.
