Latest update September 8th, 2026 10:25 AM
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Police ranks to be interdicted for absenteeism in court
Police ranks who repeatedly absent themselves from court without a valid reason will be interdicted from duty.
The warning came from Commissioner of Police Henry Greene, during an address yesterday to ranks at the Force’s annual mid-year awards ceremony to mark the organisation’s 172nd anniversary.
“Once we realize that you have deliberately stayed away from court, with all sorts of frivolous excuses, you will be charged and interdicted from duty. I’m warning you now, send the word through,” the Commissioner told his ranks.
Greene said that there is no doubt that in the area of prosecution there have been difficulties for the Guyana Police Force. He stated that not only police witnesses are absent from time to time, but civilian witnesses are also delinquent in this regard.
According to Greene, in some cases the civilian witnesses are compromised.
“There are lots of other witnesses who get paid off…who don’t come because they are paid off, and they hide, all sorts of schemes. And cases are dismissed, not necessarily because of the poor police prosecution,” the Commissioner said.
He explained that the Force has been making significant efforts to train its prosecutors.
“They’re not lawyers, but they’ve had some amount of training, and invariably some police ranks are absent… and many times it’s in the Magistrate’s judgement that even though we feel that a prima facie case has been made out, the Magistrate feels otherwise and dismisses the case,” Greene said.
The situation impacts negatively on justice for the victims of criminal activity as well as the accused, who have to spend months on remand as a result of the tardiness of some police ranks.
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