Seeking to assuage concerns, President Irfaan Ali on Monday assured that the government’s new regional crime fighting units will not be a parallel police force.
“The Regional Joint Support Team cannot and will never be parallel to the Guyana Police Force. The Police Force is actively involved in this Regional Support Team. What is the difference is that now you have a broadened inter-agency unit that will assist in crime fighting. It is not parallel, it is not separate, it is part of,” Ali told a virtual press conference.
Ali said that the initiative was one promised in his party’s 2020 elections manifesto and is designed to help with the changing economic landscape as Guyana gains wealth from the oil and gas sector.
“Let me be clear: Like all the political parties promised, regionalisation of the crime fighting is important and the nature of crime itself is changing. As the country grows and becomes richer and more sophisticated, the types of crimes will also become more sophisticated. That is why we have these regional integrated crime fighting units that are fused together with officers from varying agencies, with various skillsets. So you could have a combined approach of intelligence sharing, crime fighting and rapid response, in any situation,” he contended.
“Who would not want this? The only persons are persons who want to facilitate these crimes. The only persons who would reject a stronger more integrated approach to crime fighting are persons who find some amount of [benefit] with crime. These units are a critical part of the regionalisation process that all of us spoke about during the campaign and when they [the now opposition APNU+AFC] were in government,” he added.
On the makeup of the agency, Ali said that it will comprise “officers from intelligence agencies, from drug enforcement, from the police, from the Joint Services.”
While he did not address who will head the team, Ali said that “It brings varied skillsets together. The unit is highly trained and will be highly trained to respond to various security challenges. We have to build our capacity and that is what is being done here. The unit is highly trained and will be highly trained to respond to various security challenges. We have to build our capacity and that is what is being done here.”
Ali added that the units are now being outfitted and equipped but noted that in Region Four one of them has “already been part of the support mechanism.”
During a sitting in June, the National Assembly approved more than $700 million to the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) for the establishment of a new crime-fighting `Regional Joint Support Team.’
At the sitting, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance Gail Teixeira explained that the Regional Joint Support Team is a “new initiative” that was set up to aid the crime fighting capacity of the Guyana Police Force.
Former Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan has publicly charged that the teams would be unconstitutional since crime fighting comes under the Police Act and does not routinely include the GDF.
“This is what makes it so unconstitutional. The army has national security interest to look after. The army cannot get involved unless the criminality of the situation is so high and rampant that it is leading to a national security crisis, the police can then call them in….They are always a supplementary force for purposes to help the police but they cannot be a frontline force,” he had told Stabroek News.
