Merai, Crime Chief head police promotions list

Jan 03, 2009 News

Crime Chief Seelall Persaud and Steve Merai headed the list of promotions for the Guyana Police Force.

Crime Chief Seelall Persaud

Both Merai and Persaud were elevated to the status of Assistant Commissioners, along with Commander of the East Coast Division, Balram Persaud; Head of the Immigration Department, George Vyphuis; and Gavin Primo and Nolan Hendricks of the Tactical Services Unit.

The six new Assistant Commissioners will supplement the top brass of the force, which has seen the retirement of a number of senior officers within the past year.

Merai, who has been the longest serving Senior Superintendent, was head of the now disbanded Target Special Squad after serving a number of years in the Criminal Investigations Department.

He was fingered in a number of controversial cases ranging from murder to assault, all of which were dispensed by the courts. He was recently cleared of private kidnapping charges.

As Head of the Target Special Squad, he was the only senior officer to be wounded during the crime wave that commenced in 2002, when five criminals escaped from the Camp Street prison.

Elevated to Senior Superintendent are former Public Relations Officer David Ramnarine; Head of the Criminal Investigations Department at Brickdam, Winston Cosbert; and Traffic Chief Neil Semple.

Another police Public Relations Officer, John Sauers, has been promoted to Superintendent, along with last year’s Best Cop Lyndon Alves and 2007 Best Cop Clifton Hicken.

There are 12 new Deputy Superintendents, 27 Assistant Superintendents, and 20 new Inspectors.

The senior appointments were approved by the Police Service Commission, and are the first promotions for the past two years.

In addition, Police Commissioner Henry Greene, who was confirmed in his position last Wednesday, has approved the promotions of 49 Sergeants, 84 Corporals and 68 Lance Corporals.

He also approved promotions in the Special Constabulary, to the effect that nine Sergeants, 17 Corporals and eight Lance Corporals were appointed.

Twelve persons in the Rural Constabulary were promoted to Sergeants, while 45 were elevated to Corporals.