Human Rights Association calls for complete overhaul of the Guyana Police Force

The Guyana Human Rights Association, (GHRA) has issued a call for a complete overhaul of the Guyana Police Force to rid the organization of many of the challenges it is currently facing.

In a release today, the GHRA said that the symptoms afflicting the Guyana Police Force cannot be treated as the short-comings of individual officers or political parties, but a system which has not been working for decades.

“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 said.

Further, the Human Rights body noted that the ongoing issue over the constitutionality of President Ali’s plans to confirm Acting Police Commissioner Hicken substantively in the post despite him being over the age of retirement, as well as the saga involving the money laundering probe of Assistant Commissioner of Police Calvin Brutus, raise legal, ethical, constitutional and accountability issues. The body said the Force can only be redeemed by transformational reforms in all areas.

“Pervasive dysfunctionality in the Guyana Police Force (GPF) is manifest in many ways. A retirement age at 55 years, for example, underlines the distance of the policing establishment from civilian life, in which many people would consider a person of fifty-five to be in their executive prime. The startling facts – as revealed to the press by Mr. Brutus that perks enjoyed by senior police officials are such that he has no need to spend his salary. More disquieting are revelations about the millions of dollars of wedding and Christmas gifts to the police officer from businessmen, treated apparently as routine, judging by the revelations about them,” the GRHA said.

The GRHA said while the Police Complaints Authority and Police Service Commission have specific roles to play, the GHRA’s view is that there is no body or mechanism specifically dedicated to oversight of the Guyana Police Force. It believes that as a result, the momentum for evolution of the GPF as a modern Police Service tasked with ensuring accountability and promoting a peaceful, multi-cultural Guyana is non-existent.

“Devolved Agencies such as the Police Complaints Authority tend to become sinecures for retired judges and treated with disdain by the GPF itself. An attempt to change the name from ‘Force’ to ‘Service’ by former Commissioner Felix was brought to an abrupt end when his own tenure suffered an equally abrupt end. Against this summary background, it is clear that the symptoms afflicting the Guyana Police Force cannot be treatable as short-comings of this or that individual officer, or even this or that political party,” the GHRA stated.

The body is proposing the development of a comprehensive reform programme to be promoted as a single package where there is more community based policing among other measures.