Recent floods

HERE TO HELP: Police Commissioner Winston Felix with Chief Inspector Joe Swanston, centre, and Training Officer Rory McIntyre. (Winston Oudkerk photos)

Officials said the preparations are under a six-month programme to be run by members of the Scottish College under a British-supported scheme.

As part of the scheme, 18 senior police officers yesterday began a two-week "train the trainers programme" at the Felix Austin Police College in Georgetown under the theme "Training for Greater Efficiency and Effectiveness.”

At the opening, Senior Superintendent Vesta Adams said the aim of the project is to assist the Guyana Police Force “to develop culture, practice and procedure and thereby achieve a safer and more stable community in the build-up to the election to be held in 2006 and then thereafter."

Violence during campaigning and after the polls has marred several recent elections here and the army has been called out to help police restore order.

Addressing the gathering at yesterday’s opening, acting Home Affairs Minister Gail Teixeira said it was important that the Police Force be modernised since it needs to be more competent, capable and efficient.

She pointed out that the training by the members of the Scottish Police College will force police officers to look at challenges that have surfaced during the last century.

She noted that questions relating to the capabilities of the security forces, law enforcement officers and members of the judiciary to deal with the challenges of transnational crime were being raised, since the Caribbean, Latin America and Central America are concerned with the growing number of these crimes.

According to the minister, with the training, doors are being opened to deal with the serious challenges law enforcement officers face as criminal enterprises are becoming increasingly technologically advanced.

CORE GROUP: participants at the opening of the programme yesterday.

"You need to know how to respond to the needs of the people and give them a feeling of safety and when there is a problem, let them know that the police are on the ball and looking into it," Teixeira said.

She said that although the police should not be looked to for all the answers, "you need to be able to convey the impression that you are serious, you are engaged with the community, you are working assiduously for change".

Police Commissioner Winston Felix said that other training programmes to be carried out before the end of the six months will cover Public Order training, Senior Investigating Officers, Crime Scene Preservation, Forensic Awareness at Crime Scenes, Exhibit Handling, Investigative, Interviewing and Statement Taking, and Management of Intelligence, Resources and Reducing Crime.

He said the training programmes were the fruit of collaboration between the Guyana and British governments and the Guyana Police Force that began two years ago.

"Several teams came and did studies and today we are going to have a product of that long interaction between the government and the British High Commission and the Police,” the commissioner said.

Felix said the programmes are designed to address the total needs of the organisation and improving and developing the skills of police ranks to empower them to serve the public with a higher degree of efficiency and effectiveness.

Programme facilitator and Chief Inspector from the United Kingdom Joe Swanston said that for the next six months, the Scottish policemen will be covering a range of areas, including presentation and communication skills and structural techniques.

He explained that the training will be student-oriented.

"We will try to be as interactive as possible at the training programmes," Swanston promised.

Also at the ceremony was British High Commissioner Mr. Stephen Hiscock

At the ceremony, Teixeira also urged the law enforcement officers to read and analyse the different reports on the drug trade.

She did not specifically refer to the recent report by the United States State Department on drug rings in Guyana which claimed corruption in the Police Force and the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit was feeding narcotics trafficking here.

"I was reading last night the report of the International Narcotic Control Board for 2004 from the United Nations and, very interestingly, they talk about all the issues of narcotic and by the way, Guyana is in the South American zone and we are not even mentioned as a country”, she said.

The minister said that the UN report, in terms of narcotic activities, does not list Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana as areas of concern.

"But I still believe that people should read this report and other reports that are coming out and come to your own deductions.”

She also said that policemen and women should read and analyse these different reports.

Tuesday, March 08, 2005