Police deserve a bigger incentive – Top cop

Dec 17, 2008 News

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– JSOG top man is Best Cop for 2008
– slain constable gets posthumous award for bravery

Assistant Superintendent of Police, Lyndon Alves, a senior operative of the Joint Services Operations Group (JSOG) which was set up to hunt down the now dead Rondell Rawlins and his gang, won the coveted Best Cop award at the annual Police Awards ceremony held at the annex of the Police Officers’ Mess, Eve Leary yesterday.
Alves won the award from a very competitive field, given that many other ranks played their part in the significant reduction in criminal activity during this year.

Apart from the subsequent killing of Rawlins and several members of his notorious gang, Assistant Superintendent Alves also led the JSOG team which killed two bandits and captured several others following the brazen attack on the Wales Estate payroll two months ago.
He was the leader of the team that was responsible for the discovery of a cache of weapons and ammunition in a barrel on Regent Street.
Notably absent from yesterday’s public recognition ceremony were ranks from the police traffic department which has been able to significantly reduce road fatalities this year.
But, according to a senior traffic official, the ranks will be publicly recognised at a special function to be held before year-end.
Speaking with reporters immediately after the ceremony, Alves said that he was moved to ‘up his game’ following the massacre of 11 persons including children at Lusignan, for which Rawlins and his gang were the prime suspects, and in the wake of the Bartica massacre that claimed 12 lives, among them three policemen.
He said that after visiting the scenes at Lusignan and later at Bartica he and his team were determined to rid the country of the elements that were responsible.
According to Alves, since the establishment of the JSOG, members of the public have been showing great confidence in the unit, and have been passing on information which has enabled the ranks to succeed in the mission.

But he too would be among the first to admit that the work is not yet over.
“As the Commissioner alluded to in his speech, there are several others (criminals) that we are still pursuing relentlessly,” the Best Cop awardee told the media.
He advised that his recent successes came from hard work, commitment and discipline.
Alves thanked God, his colleagues and members of his family, who were constantly holding their breaths every time he left for work.
In a feature address to the gathering, Acting Police Commissioner, Henry Greene, declared that the force has been able to make Guyana safe again.
The Commissioner was referring to the success of the police in 2008, during which they were able to significantly dent the notorious Buxton/Agricola gang which had terrorised the country for almost five years.
“The majority of us…have continued to make Guyana safe, make Guyana proud as a country, where people from all over the regions are happy to come,” Greene said, while noting that the Guyana Police Force will be hosting next year’s Association of Commissioners of Police Conference along with a number of other events.
The Commissioner pointed to an article by Kaieteur News columnist ‘Peeping Tom’ in which members of the security forces were called upon to ‘earn their bread’, meaning that the one-off one-month payment that they get at the end of the year was not an absolute right.
Greene said that this helped to motivate members of the force who went after the criminal elements with a vengeance, accounting for the putting of more than 27 gang members behind bars and eliminating several others who chose to engage the security forces in armed confrontations.
Greene said that, following the successes of the security forces, the ‘Peeper’ changed his tune.
“He said that the Commodore must get promotion, he said the Commissioner must get confirmed, he said the police must get the one-off money. We have worked to deserve it,” Greene said, referring to the customary end-of-year extra month incentive.
Pointing to the recent success in Berbice, when three of the Buxton gang members, Cliff Chichester, James Gibson and Cranston Gill were killed, Greene said that, although many persons had claimed that the men were being erroneously targeted, the circumstances of their deaths proved otherwise.
He said that the battle is not over, and the police are wary that the remaining elements of the infamous gang could regroup and resume their activities.
“We will remain alert and continue to work. I think if the ‘Peeper’ should write again, he should say we should get two-off,” the Commissioner said to a resounding applause from the audience.
“I think the police deserve two-off, not one-off. And I hope those concerned will hear that the police force is happy, motivated and working and will work even harder with the two-off,” Greene added to more applause.
He said, nevertheless, the force will be thankful for whatever the administration is prepared to give.
Meanwhile, the police have bestowed a posthumous honour on slain policeman Constable Oslen Glasgow who was shot dead during the confrontation with three gunmen on the Cromarty foreshore, Corentyne, almost a month ago.
The late constable was awarded the Commissioner’s Medal of Honour for Bravery, which was presented to his mother Doreen Glasgow.
According to Commissioner Greene, the force administration will advocate that the dead constable receive a posthumous national award.
The dead cop’s mother told reporters that life has been made very difficult as a result of the loss of her son, since he was the breadwinner of the family.
Glasgow explained that her husband is stricken with a stroke and she now has the responsibility to take care of her fatherless grandson.
“Up to now I haven’t got the death certificate. I met with the police before and they were to call me back. Up to now they (police) ain’t do nothing, but maybe they will call me later,” Doreen Glasgow said.
Several million dollars will be paid out to a number of police ranks for their sterling performances throughout the year.

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