Guyana to host regional police conference after 13 years

Feb 21, 2009 News

Come May 11 through May 15 the Guyana Police Force will be hosting the 24th Annual General Meeting and Conference of the Association of Caribbean Commissioners at the Pegasus Hotel, Georgetown. The theme for this year’s conference is: “Police Reform – an Imperative for Quality Service”.

Members of the media were yesterday briefed by Police Commissioner Henry Greene on what the conference would be like. Also at the briefing were Mr. David Wiltshire, Manager of the ACCP Head Office in Barbados, and Ms. Marcia Manning, Executive Secretary.

Already, Commissioner Greene said, some 24 Commissioners of Police would be attending the event. Apart from the formal programme the Commissioner said there will be several other social events for the officers.

He added that they have also received tremendous support from the private sector.

“Some 21 exhibitors have already expressed interest in coming to host an exhibition of mainly policing products,” the Commissioner said.

He pointed out that currently both Ms. Manning and Mr. Wiltshire are making the necessary arrangements locally to ensure that the agenda is in keeping with what is being planned in Barbados for the event.

According to the Commissioner of Police, the theme for the conference was selected since it has been noticed all over the Caribbean that a number of forces are undergoing reform and are in need of reform.

He added that collectively the region has been looking at improving the quality of service provided by regional police officers.

On the same note, Wiltshire said the region needs to recognise that law enforcement is always in a state of flux, and there are a number of challenges that the region as a whole is trying to grapple with.

Therefore, he said, it is imperative that persons in law enforcement position regional police officers to be better able to effectively respond to those challenges.

“In the last conference we conducted some introspections, and look at where we are as a law enforcement community. We did recognise that there are some areas that need to addressed,” Wiltshire said.

“There is no one plan that can work for all countries. We have different problems; we can’t fashion a common plan; we must however continue to look at the individual challenges. We are different in a lot of areas,” he added.

Wiltshire said that they have not yet decided fully on the agenda for the conference, as they are still looking at some of the issues which should be dealt with. The present President of the ACCP is Mr. Darwin Dottin, Commissioner of the Royal Barbados Police Force, who is expected to be a part of the event along with several other executive members.

The ACCP was established on August 20, 1987 in Castries, St. Lucia, and its mission is to be the principal organisation for promoting and facilitating? collaboration and co-operation in the development and implementation of policing strategies, systems and procedures; the professional and technical skills development of police officers; and proactive measures to prevent crime and improve police community relations.

The Annual General Meeting and Conference of the ACCP is once again being hosted in Guyana after 13 years. Originally Turks and Caicos Islands was identified to be the host country but, due to the devastating effect of Hurricane Ike, it could not.