No other police force in the world like Guyana’s

Jun 08, 2017 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Always in the night, I travel north on Lombard Street when I leave Kaieteur News offices; Monday night was no exception. As I turned east into Hadfield Street, a traffic rank pulled me aside. I did not pull into the corner but stopped in the middle of the road. When he came to the driver’s window, I asked him in a loud tone; “Why did you stop me?” I uttered those words because I knew he pulled me over at random. I committed no infringement and there was nothing suspicious about me or my aging RAV4.
After those words, he said, “Oh, Mr. Kissoon, oh, carry on.” I replied, “Sir, tell me why you pulled me over.” He intoned, “It’s alright Mr. Kissoon, you can go” to which I replied, “Sir, you haven’t told me why you stopped the car; you made a random stop and you cannot do that.” He said, “Man, Mr. Kissoon let’s be reasonable.” I don’t know why he said that and what he meant, but he uttered those words.
I left him with a parting advice; “You have to tell people why you stop them; you cannot stop them at random.” As I moved off, I saw four more ranks, stationed in different positions outside Parliament and the Georgetown Magistrate Court, stopping drivers at random.
I drove straight to Brickdam Police Station. I asked for the traffic officer in charge. I knew the officer a long time now. We met when she regulated the traffic outside Marian Academy when my kid attended that high school. Over the years, she would always say hello to me. She was a friend of Dale Andrews but to tell the truth, I could not remember her name as I spoke to her at the station.
I had in my hands a number of newspaper articles over a three-year period in which Police Commissioner, Seelall Persaud, and Assistant Police Commissioner, David Ramnarine have addressed the random traffic stop anomaly. She declined to see the items but acknowledged that drivers cannot be stopped in routine fashion.
She agreed to send for that particular cop that was stationed outside of the southern gate of Parliament on Hadfield Street. I told her I didn’t see the necessity for that since I plan to take the matter up with the police hierarchy.
When I drove away it occurred to me that in writing a column about this incident I would need to name her. I didn’t have Brickdam station number in my phone book; I have Sparendaam police station number since that is the station that has jurisdiction where I live in Turkeyen. I called Sparendaam for the number for Brickdam’s traffic office.
Corporal Brown answered and said he didn’t know it. No one answered the phone at traffic head office at Eve Leary. I eventually got the number only to be told by Constable Shivbarran that her shift ended but he gave me her name – Corporal Simpson.
The next day I called the Commissioner of Police. He said that the people at fault in the random stop aberration are the senior officers. He indicated that these officers know that drivers cannot be pulled over unless there is suspicion or the occurrence of a violation but they do not instruct the traffic patrols to this effect.
He asserted that the problem continues because citizens do not come into the station with a written statement. He assured me that once that is done, the ranks would be disciplined. In my incident, he said he would ask the Office of Professional Responsibility to investigate and interview Corporal Simpson.
Immediately after speaking to the Police Commissioner, I spoke with the Traffic Chief. He saw the missed call and got in touch. I appreciate that kind of professional courtesy. I reminded him that I did an entire column on him two years ago in which I mentioned that he gave me his word he would issue a country wide edict preventing traffic patrols from pulling motorists over at random.
His position was crystal clear – the men and women in the Guyana Police Force have been told that a vehicle could only be stopped by a traffic policeman on patrol if the rank believes or has seen the committal of an infringement or is suspicious of a vehicle. Like the Police Commissioner, he promised to investigate what I saw on Monday night.
Let me end with perhaps the funny or alarming side to this random stop thing. Over the past three years, I did six columns on the issue and submitted two statements to the police. What next?

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No other police force in the world like Guyana’s

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