Region Six officials demand probe into police inspector’s transfer

Aug 03, 2018 News

There is growing pressure on the Police Force following a decision earlier this year to transfer an inspector who stopped a minibus at a Berbice Bridge control point back in March.
The minibus, according to the police, had passengers who included two police ranks. The inspector, Godfrey Playter, refused to take a call on a phone that was being handed to him by a civilian in the bus.
It later turned out that it was the Commissioner of Police (ag), David Ramnarine, on the line.
Playter said that he was transferred for not taking the call. The Police Force later said that the Route 45 bus was on a trip to Berbice, on behalf of Ramnarine, when it was stopped at the eastern end of the bridge, at Crab Island, at the checkpoint.
The Police Force never explained what exactly the bus with the two police and two civilians was doing in Berbice.
Inspector Playter, who lives in Albion, East Berbice, in the police station compound, was summoned to meet the Police Force’s top officials and later issued a letter transferring him to the East Coast Demerara division.
The police in a statement accused Playter of making unbecoming statements to the persons in the bus. They said he later apologized.
The Force never explained why a call was placed to the civilian’s phone instead of Playter’s or even the Commander of the area.
A trained prosecutor, after the transfer in April, the inspector was travelling back and forth for his duties for almost a month, before he took leave to fix an eye problem.
The case has sparked accusations of discrimination in the Force and even for the introduction of unions to protect members of the Police Force.
Yesterday, the matter was raised at the statutory meeting of the Regional Democratic Council of Region Six.
According to Councillor of the People’s Progressive Party, Zamal Hussain, the Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan, should take actions to investigate and possibly reverse what is a clear case of discrimination.
He said that Minister Ramjattan has been assuring the Force has no discrimination and victimisation and that the Ministry is being administered in a “high level” manner.
Hussain said that Playter appeared to have just been doing his job in a professional manner when he stopped vehicles at the checkpoint.
In condemning the transfer, which police said is a normal part of the rotation procedures, the councillor said that he wants Minister Ramjattan to look into the matter.
Another councillor, this time from the Alliance For Change, Gobin Harbhajan, also joined in lending his support to Playter.
According to Harbhajan, who is also the Prime Minister’s representative in East Berbice, the matter had landed on his desk and he had advised Playter to write Minister Ramjattan.
He commended the inspector for speaking out, a symbolic move on behalf of other police ranks who may have suffered similar fates.
The PM representative urged the Regional Democratic Council to launch an investigation.

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Region Six officials demand probe into police inspector’s transfer

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