‘Stop and search’ policy not effective as random searches- Ramjattan

‘Stop and search’ policy not effective as random searches– Ramjattan

Sep 18, 2018 News

The rant by Attorney-at-law Ryan Crawford, which sparked a countrywide debate on the police policy on stop and search laws, as well as revelations of police harassment, continues to provoke discussions.
Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan addressing members of the media yesterday, after the opening ceremony of CANU Training Exercise, said, “Indeed, the policy is that you have to have reasonable suspicion before you can stop.”
However, the Public Security Minister said that random searches are more effective in unearthing guns and drugs. “We have done a lot of random searches that have caught people with guns and all of that, especially when we do random searches at night time.”
Ramjattan added that so far for the year, random searches were responsible for about 30 people being caught.
The Public Security Minister took the opportunity to urge citizens to complain to the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) on police wrongdoing. Hundreds of police ranks were dismissed because of complaints being made to the OPR, said Rmajattan.
Last week, a video emerged on Facebook, involving a traffic rank and Attorney-at-law Crawford. Crawford was pulled over and demanded to know why he was stopped. The rank said he could not see the driver properly and therefore stopped the car.
However, this angered the lawyer who insisted that he was behind two trucks and was not buying that explanation. He then launched into an expletive-laced tirade on the traffic rank. The incident had sparked a debate over who was in the right.
The Attorney’s actions became known when the traffic rank that pulled him over, recorded the exchange and posted it on social media.
An apology was later issued by Crawford on his Facebook page. In his apology, Mr. Crawford stated that it was his frustration that led to the excessive use of expletives to get his point across to the officer for what he alleged is an illegal stop, and that there were things said prior to the filming of the video.
The Guyana Bar Association also issued an official statement on the matter. While the Association refrained from commenting on the matter, it informed Guyanese of the procedure for being pulled over by the police.
Commander of ‘D’ Division, Calvin Brutus, said that he had requested the assistance of the ‘B’ Division, in East Berbice, for a statement to be taken from the lawyer. The Guyana Police Force has since indicated that the investigation of the incident is completed and the file sent to the Police Force’s legal advisor for further advice.

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