The Guyana Human Rights Association yesterday called for policing reforms in Guyana, starting with an oversight body that will be apolitical but get the blessings of the parties for its constitution.
The stated intent to appoint the acting and over 55 years old Clifton Hicken as substantive Commissioner of the Guyana Police Force (GPF), and the “saga” surrounding Assistant Police Commissioner Calvin Brutus’s large bank accounts have triggered several questions about the GPF, the GHRA contended in a statement and was why reforms were needed.
“Whether through a National Commission on Democratic Policing or some other similar mechanism, a national conversation in partnership with communities is urgently needed to achieve a fundamental transition from a Guyana Police Force to a Guyana Police Service,” the GHRA statement said. It pointed out the decades of legal, ethical, constitutional and accountability issues affecting the GPF were only redeemable by “transformational reforms in all areas”.
