President warns no place for rogue cops in police force

By Vahnu Manikchand

The Police Officers’ Training Centre was on Monday commissioned at an elaborate ceremony during which both President Donald Ramotar and Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee gave stern warnings to rogue elements of the force.
The building, at Camp Road and Young Street, was constructed at a cost of Gy$158.4 million. According to Citizens’ Security Programme coordinator Anil Ramnauth, the building will add capacity to the Guyana Police Force and will be fully utilised to improve the services provided by the organisation.
In his feature address, President Ramotar expressed the government’s gratitude to the Inter-American Development Bank for its support in developing the country. He noted that training has an important effect, especially in the security forces, which play an integral role in the country’s development.
Upholding the law
Ramotar added that while police carry out traditional roles, they are being handed more responsibilities.
“Today’s demands, modern-day demands, are very huge because of the rapid development in the science and technology… it means that while our police and security forces at large will have to continue the traditional role of enforcing the law and upholding the law and capturing criminals etc, there are more added to them because of the changing world.”
The president noted that crime has become more sophisticated, hence police officers should be more disciplined in dealing with activities such as money laundering, as well as drug and human trafficking. He explained that for the force to have effective policing, it needs to build its relationship with the community so that society can have confidence in the police and see them as friends with whom they can work, in order to get justice.
Increased effectiveness
Ramotar also talked about the morality of police officers, noting that society is traumatised every time they hear about an officer being involved in criminal activities. He also called on officers to increase their effectiveness and to be more diligent and efficient in their work, so that there will not be such a large number of cases being thrown out in court, hence allowing criminals to be freed as a result of poor investigative work.
In his address at the ceremony, Minister Rohee said while the Home Affairs Ministry is elated to hand over the training centre to the Guyana Police Force, there are still some concerns lingering. He noted that the centre will facilitate a wide range of training programmes and should be utilised to its maximum.
The minister pointed out that there is no room for “rogue” police officers, so there will be a higher standard of training. He stated that the facility will also complement training received overseas, while disclosing that several such training programmes have been initiated and will last throughout the year.
In brief remarks, acting Police Commissioner Leroy Brumell gave the assurance that the building will be fully utilised for its intended purpose. He expressed his appreciation for being bestowed with the responsibility of the training centre and challenged the officers to maintain the building’s standard.
“It is quite deserving that we have a building of this stature, as we are now in a better position, not only to host local police training, but we can now be considered ready to accept invitations for overseas ranks to be here for training,” Brumell pointed out.
The building includes a cafeteria, library and reading centre, IT centre, recruitment centre, lecture theatres and classrooms, and an auditorium that can seat 230 persons.