Latest update November 14th, 2024 12:12 AM
Police force lose 200 ranks a year
High staff turnover is plaguing the Guyana Police Force and according to Crime Chief Seelall Persaud, this is impacting significantly on the organisation’s ability to effectively carry out its mandate.
Seelall Persaud
Delivering the feature address at the police end of year awards ceremony yesterday, in the place of Commissioner of Police Leroy Brumell, Persaud said that although the police keep turning out new members ever year a significant number of persons are leaving the force annually.
According to Persaud, the force enlisted 285 new members this year but at the same time the organization has suffered a loss of 194 ranks.
“The difference here is that a lot of that 194 are men and women who are trained and experienced. That is something we need to deal with in a significant way,” he said.
He did not say, however, what were the main reasons for the high rate of turnover. Many will argue that the remuneration is one main factor, while the number of police ranks being interdicted and placed before the courts has been increasingly steadily.
Deputy Commissioner Persaud disclosed that the Ministry of Home Affairs is currently engaging some consultants to deal with a number of issues, among them, are recruitment and retention of members of the force.
The Crime Chief, who many believe is the commissioner of police in waiting, also touched a bit on the ongoing police reform.
He said that the police has undertaken to embrace a model referred to as the results oriented planning model, which is moving the force away from the traditional public service, bureaucratic-type operations to one that is more business-like, “where Commanders who command resources of the Force are expected to submit plans that will meet the goals of the Force, and then they will have to account for the performances…to the Commissioner of Police.”
He also announced that there has been a four percent increase in serious crimes, compared with last year, with murders standing at 136, compared with 131 for the same period in 2012.
According to Persaud, though, the increase was significantly impacted by the high incidence of gun-related robberies where there was a 15 per cent increase.
“The majority of those robberies were committed in a division, mainly Georgetown and a large majority is street robberies,” he said.
In their efforts to combat this situation, the police have so far seized 92 illegal firearms.
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