Addressing his first Police Officers’ Conference this morning, President Irfaan Ali laid out the case for further reforming and rebranding of the Guyana Police Force.
The President told senior and junior Police Officers that as there is a need to restructure and reposition the Guyana Police Force, the way the Force is seen by members of the Public will also have to be an issue that will have to be addressed.
“You can have the best structure but the worst brand…One of the issues we have is the brand. You can have the best product but if you have a bad brand, you have problems, so you reposition, you restructure and now you have to look at rebranding”, the President said.
President Ali said there will also be the need to further decentralise the operations of the Guyana Police Force. He said too often many communities are forced to wait on a “high level” team from headquarters. The President wants to see all of the important units of the Force in every region.
“The future will not give us the time to send in what is normally called a High-Level team from Major Crimes unit to investigate something two days old in a different region. We have to have the capacity in the regions. We have to build the capacity and build institutions and strengthen those institutions”.
The Officers were also told that improving efficiency will top any restructuring plan for the Force.
He said “the goal has to be efficiency, effectiveness, responsiveness and it requires clarity of vision and not mixture of vision. No individual is running a separate arm of the Force. There must be one common vision and one approach, a singular approach”.
The Guyana Police Force has reported a more than 40% decrease in serious crimes over the past year, although there has been an increase in the number of murders.
The President has given the commitment of the Government to further strengthen and develop the Police Force. He said key training programmes will be unveiled as part of the plans to retool the Guyana Police Force.
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