Police ranks upset over interference by senior Government functionaries

Jul 27, 2010 News

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Junior ranks of the Guyana Police Force are concerned over what they termed interference by senior functionaries of the government in the execution of their duties.
The ranks have cited two recent cases, one in which a traffic rank was upbraided by a senior functionary of the judiciary after she detained a relative of his for a traffic violation.
And in another case, ranks of the Ruimveldt Police Station were instructed to return the firearm of a relative of another judicial senior, while they were still in the process of conducting investigations.
This newspaper understands that in the first case, the traffic rank had stopped a vehicle on the East Coast of Demerara and upon checking, observed that the documents had expired.
The rank invited the driver to the nearby Vigilance Police Station with a view to institute charges.
However, the driver, using his cellular phone contacted a relative who happens to be a senior member of the judiciary.
The driver then invited the rank to speak with the person on the other end of the line but the rank refused, pointing out that she was not permitted to speak to anyone on the phone while she was on duty on the road.
She advised the driver to let the person call the station to speak with an officer if he so desires. This angered the judicial functionary, who according to reports, contacted senior police officials.
But what ticked off the rank and her colleagues is the fact that she was instructed by her superiors to report to the office of the senior judicial functionary.
There she received a stern reprimand and was subsequently sent away.
“It seems as though this person is the Commissioner of Police or the Commander, that he could have a rank report to him for a reprimand,” one East Coast Demerara rank told this newspaper.
In the other case, this newspaper understands that a licence firearm holder who pulled out his weapon and threatened his tenant, had his firearm seized by the police at the Ruimveldt Police Station to facilitate their investigations.
Hours later the ranks received instructions to return the man’s firearm. The incident is reminiscent of a similar one involving Retired Assistant Commissioner Paul Slowe and former home Affairs Minister Ronald Gajraj.
Slowe had lamented that there was some amount of interference in works of the police force by senior government functionaries.
He had advised that police ranks are not mandated to obey an illegal order.
Home Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee when told of the two incidents said that the matters will have to be investigated before he can pronounce on them.
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Most commit suicide by drinking poison
Gramoxone manufacturer helping with controlled use

With the country facing a high suicide rate, the Ministry of Health is moving to control the use of the herbicide, gramoxone, which is thought to cause most of the death among people who ingest poison.
According to Health Minister, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, of all suicides committed in Guyana about 70 percent is by way of the ingestion of the poison and the most used poison is the herbicide gramoxone.
Ramsammy told reporters yesterday that the Ministry of Health is working with the Pesticide Board to put in place stricter systems for the use of gramoxone. Syngenta, the manufacturer of the herbicide, is assisting in the process.
Ramsammy said that Syngenta is assisting families in agricultural communities to make them aware of safe ways of storing the drug. The Health Minister said this includes encouraging families to develop their own system so that no one member of the family could have easy access to the drug.
In addition, he said that the Ministry is working with the Pesticide Board to develop a diluted form of the drug. This diluted form would have to be used immediately for it to be effective.
Further, Dr Ramsammy said Syngenta is always willing to provide Guyana with an antidote, in the form of a dirt material, for people who ingest the drug.
The Minister said that Guyana is developing a national strategy to treat with suicides and is getting help from professional Jack Hicks of Dalhousie University.
Out of every 100, 000 Guyanese, an estimated 25 commit suicide, Ramsammy stated.
This is higher than the global average, which is 16 persons in every 100, 000 population. But he said the suicide rate in Guyana might be higher than the global average because this country has been able to better record suicide deaths.
Hicks said that while it would appear that more men die because of suicides, this does not mean that men attempt suicide more than women. In fact, he said more women attempt suicide than men, but fewer women die because they use less lethal means.
Dr Ramsammy said that over the past five years, the Ministry of Health has been putting various programmes in place to reduce the number of suicides. One of those things he said is trying to understand the special characteristics in the lives of those who might attempt or commit suicide.
He said that understanding these factors will help to add to the Ministry’s training programmes, both for health care workers and for members of the community. He cited HIV as one predisposing factor, and said the Ministry has been developing capacity to treat psychiatric disorders such as bipolar and schizophrenia.
Dr Ramsammy said that while the number of suicide deaths is known, the number of suicide attempts is not known. As a result, he said the Chief Medical Officer would be reminding public and private health facilities that they are mandated to report both successful and attempted suicides to the Ministry of Health within 24 hours.
A further initiative the Ministry is moving to implement is a crisis hotline, which will come into operation in September.
He said the state-of-the-art system will record all calls and these will be studied.
The responses will also be studied so the Ministry of Health could continue and improve training to those who monitor the hotline.
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Police respond to KN article

The Guyana Police Force does have a policy to cater for “the acquisition of a high quality of dogs attached to the Canine Section and their continuous effective training”.
This statement heads a response by the police to an article published by this newspaper on Thursday July 15, 2010, under the caption “Guyana Police lack the policy framework to deal with dogs”.
The KN article based on an interview with a security consultant had also questioned how and where the police would purchase new dogs. The response states that this will be done through US K9 Unlimited Inc, who had previously selected dogs from Europe for the Force.
The police stated, also, that ranks have on each occasion said that Police Dogs were acquired, undertaken training in the field and were certified as handlers, having achieved the desired rating of excellence.
However, KN notes that the GPF has stated that this training was done overseas. While this is a commendable achievement for the ranks involved, the KN article did emphasise that the lack was in the local system, and that the capacity is not there on a local level. According to the article, policy documents for the (local) military and police must have sections on dogs.
The Security legislation in Guyana doesn’t include dogs, but in all other security legislation overseas, or subsidiary documents, they state that dog handlers should be trained to Level 3.
The article also points to the training of dogs and handlers for the local private security firms, and that there were cases where security dogs in Guyana from prominent security firms have bitten members of the diplomatic community and even UN officials, and handlers as well.
KN had pointed out in the article that local security legislation is to control those kinds of things.
What the GPF’s response did not address, and what was stated in the article, was that the government began a security review last month after U.S. officials complained about a large number of cocaine-filled suitcases from Guyana intercepted in American cities. One suitcase seized contained 50 pounds (23 kilograms) of cocaine.
The dogs’ handler, Maurice Smith, (who is not Guyanese) said that the animals — two Labradors and a German Shepherd — would be more effective if officials provided cocaine for them to smell as part of their training. He said the government has refused to do so, apparently out of fear that the drugs would be stolen.

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