More civilian input within the Guyana Police Force

Dec 02, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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A few weeks ago, the understaffed Guyana Police Force commissioned a new batch of police prosecutors, all of whom were drawn from the ranks of the organization.
Laudable as it is that the Guyana Police Force can find personnel from within its ranks to train as prosecutors, there is the downside to this in that these good men and women will no longer be involved in day to day police investigation.
The Guyana Police Force is seriously short-staffed. Many persons are reluctant to join the Force because they are not comfortable with being a uniformed staff and all that this entails. The Guyana Police Force must recognize this situation and given the gravity of the shortage of manpower which it faces should seek to fill certain positions with “contract” staff, i.e. those who do not enjoy tenured employment.
The field of crime prosecution is one area in which the Guyana Police Force can make use of contract employees. There are many graduates from the University of Guyana who would willingly take up positions as prosecutors while they await their admission into the Hugh Wooding Law School. There are many secondary school graduates who would be willing to gain the experience of being prosecutors while awaiting admission to the Law Faculty of the University of Guyana. By employing and training these persons as prosecutors, the Guyana Police Force can retain more ranks in crime investigation.
Another area where the Guyana Police Force can utilize civilian personnel is in forensic sciences. Recently a man was found murdered on the Georgetown Seawalls. A photograph in the newspaper showed the mother of the dead man near her dead son while police investigators combed the scene for evidence.
In any other part of the world, that mother would not have been allowed near to the body of her child. The crime area would have been condoned off and the police would have examined the body for forensic evidence such as hair follicles or clothing fibres under the fingernails of the dead man.
There are a number of high school and university graduates who may be willing to take up civilian jobs within the Guyana Police Force in the area of forensic investigation. With their academic credentials and training, these persons can help improve the forensic investigative capability of the Guyana Police Force.
There are a number of other such areas in the Guyana Police Force which, if taken over by civilian staff or contracted out to firms, can make a huge difference to the manpower needs of the organization. One such area is Immigration. Presently the issuance of passports is done by uniformed staff members with a private firm being responsible for the printing of the books.
There is no reason why the entire immigration Services of the Guyana Police Force cannot be contracted out to a private firm thereby freeing the Guyana Police Force from this responsibility.
It is the same thing with the issuance of fitness for motor vehicles and the certification of drivers. Given the large numbers of vehicles on the roads today, it is truly amazing that without increasing the number of points at which vehicles can be certified as fit for road use, the police have been able to certify so many vehicles. This says that the system of certification may be far from perfect and that many vehicles are being certified as roadworthy without going through detailed examinations.
This is an area that can be contracted out to private firms. It needs not cost the State a cent because whatever is the service fee for the provision of this service, can be charged to the customer. In this way, the Guyana Police Force can free itself of the administrative and manpower responsibility of certifying vehicles and drivers.
The Guyana Police Force is also required when there are important sporting events such as international cricket to provide personnel to man security at the venue and for traffic control. Given the acute shortage of staff within the Force, fulfilling this obligation must tax the manpower of the Force.
Yet there is no reason why arrangements cannot be put in place to have private security firms undertake these tasks and given for just these occasions the powers of arrest enjoyed by uniformed ranks.
The sad thing about these suggestions is not they are not original. They have been made before in the past. Yet the authorities have moved at a snail’s pace to seek these reforms, content to pursue the traditional approach of wooing persons to join the uniformed ranks.
The record has not been good in this regard. The Guyana Police Force must therefore recognize that there must be greater roles for civilians and private firms to play in the fights against crime and they should seek more contract workers in specialized fields.

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