THE OPR AND NOT THE CID SHOULD BE INVESTIGATING MERAI’S ALLEGATIONS

Aug 20, 2011 Peeping Tom

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Me and you is friends
You smile, I smile
You cry, I cry
You hurt, I hurt
You jump off Bridge,
I gonna miss you.
There are a lot of things people would do for their friends, but it takes a very special friend to lend you his expensive BMW to go to work. You have to be really special or trustworthy for someone to risk doing so.
Well, it seems that there are such individuals within the Guyana Police Force, because at least two of them have reportedly claimed that their cars were having problems and they borrowed these high-end vehicles from friends.
The police are at present investigating an allegation made by a senior officer who suggested that certain ranks were in league with members of the underworld. One of the pointers used was some ranks were driving expensive vehicles to work.
Explanations have reportedly been given by the accused ranks. One of them even claimed that the owner took out a loan to purchase the vehicle.
These are simple matters which can be verified. If as if being claimed, one of the ranks experienced problems with his vehicle and was forced to borrow an expensive ride, then this is something that the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) should be able to check. Good investigative work will determine how credible that explanation is. They should also be able to confirm whether a bank loan was taken to purchase a vehicle. The vehicle’s registration will reveal its ownership history.
What is needed is not a criminal investigation. You do not break the law simply by driving a vehicle to work. As such there is no need to involve the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
There is no need also for the person who made the allegations about the ranks at a private meeting to be asked to produce the evidence. Just a few days ago, the police were claiming that it was improper of this newspaper to report on the contents of a private meeting. Yet now the same police are insisting that the officer who made the allegations against the ranks should produce the evidence which he led at this “private meeting.”
The officer has already pointed to the evidence – the use of expensive vehicles by ranks and the fraternizing of a certain officer with suspect characters in one of the compounds of the Police Force.
What other evidence does the officer need to produce? He has pointed to things which he feels suggest improper relations and ties, and it is for the Office of Professional Responsibility to investigate these matters.
To write and ask the officer to do so is to expose him to grave risk. The matter should have been handled differently, which would have allowed for a private and confidential debriefing of the officer, after which the Office of Professional Responsibility would take over. All the allegations can and should be investigated.
The present allegations point to the need for a stronger code of conduct within the Guyana Police Force. Already, ranks are told that they cannot own minibuses and hire cars. This is a good start, even though it is still quite possible for the minibuses to be paid for by police officers but registered in the name of their husbands or wives.
The code of conduct needs to be strengthened to ensure that if the spouse of a policeman or policewoman owns a vehicle, then the ranks should not intercede on behalf of the spouse should such a case arise.
There should be limits on the value of gifts that police ranks should be allowed to receive. There are a lot of senior officers of the force who are often seen being fêted by rich businessmen. Sometimes you ask whether some of these officers have any pride. They sit around a table with these big shots and they allow the businessmen to buy whatever they want, without even thinking about buying a round themselves. It is as if at times they feel they have a right to freeness. A revised code of conduct needs to take account of all of these things.
All officers should also be subject to special audits of their assets every three years. These audits may be staggered so that this year 33% of the officers are audited, the next year, another 33% and in the third year, the remaining officers. In this way, the auditors can comb through the financial records of the officers to determine whether they are living beyond their earnings.
The Commissioner of Police should be commended for improving certain aspects of policing. One area in which there has been considerable improvement, and for which sufficient credit has not been given to the Guyana Police Force, has been in the area of extra-judicial killings. There have been considerably less allegations of extra-judicial killings within the force and its shows that once there is that commitment at the very top, then results will be shown at the lower levels of the organization.
As such, it is for the leadership of the Guyana Police Force to demonstrate its seriousness in light of the accusations which were recently said to be leveled at the force by a senior officer.
The code of conduct should be revised so as to limit the possibility of ranks unknowingly consorting with persons who may not be in good standing with the law.
It is not good enough for the police to call on the individual making the accusations to produce evidence. A report has been made; certain grounds have been adduced. It is now time for the Office of Professional Responsibility to do detailed investigations to determine whether any senior ranks would have been compromised.

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