Latest update December 12th, 2024 1:00 AM
Policemen clueless about Force’s Standing Orders, citizens’ rights – PCA
By Shervin Belgrave
Kaieteur News – Head of the Police Complaints Authority (PCA), Justice (Ret’d) William Ramlall in three consecutive yearly reports pointed out that hundreds of police ranks have “little” to “no” knowledge of the Guyana Police Force’s (GPF) Standing Orders (SOs) and the fundamental rights of citizens.
The PCA is a constitutional body tasked with investigating alleged misconduct by policemen and recommending disciplinary actions against them.
One of the glaring things that the PCA noted in its 2020, 2021 and 2022 reports is that policemen do not have knowledge of the Constitution that governs them.
In the 2020 report, Ramlal said that “a few hundred” policemen he interviewed in 2019 showed poor knowledge of the Force’s SOs. Justice Ramlall said too that the police’s knowledge of the law and its application in criminal matters coupled with the fundamental rights of citizens, especially when it concerns arrests and stop and search operations are very poor.
Similarly, in the 2021 report, the head of the PCA said that nothing changed based on the interviews he conducted. There was no difference stated in the 2022 report and in fact, he said the situation was worse in that none of the more than 300 policemen interviewed in 2022 had knowledge of the Force’s SOs.
Acting Commissioner of the Guyana Police Force, Clifton Hicken
“These interviews have established that not one police rank showed knowledge of the Force’s Standing Orders in its entirety or even in a substantial way,” the 2022 report stated while adding, “Likewise, all these ranks have shown very little knowledge of the fundamental rights of all citizens which are clearly written in Articles 138 to 153 of the Constitution”.
The report further stated that they do not have a working knowledge of 13 laws that govern their policing work.
These laws, according to report, include the Summary Jurisdiction Act, the Customary Jurisdiction Act, the Criminal Law (Offences) Act, the Criminal (Procedures) Act, the Administrative Justice Act, the Evidence Act, the Juvenile Offences Act, the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic (Control) Substance Act, the Sexual Offences Act, the Domestic Violence Act, the Firearms Act, the Combating of Trafficking in Persons Act, the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Finance of Terrorism Act.
Policemen conducting duties at a crime scene.
According to the PCA, the lack of basic knowledge of these laws can cause police ranks to infringe on the constitutional and statutory rights of suspects. The PCA has received numerous complaints in this regard.
Head of Police Complaints Authority, Justice (Ret’d), William Ramlall.
In 2022 alone, the PCA recorded a total of 194 complaints. A significant number of that amount had to do with unlawful arrests and the violation of citizens’ rights. The Complaint’s Authority warned that poor knowledge of the law by policemen can lead to civil suits being filed against the State, costing it millions of dollars.
A recent example of the PCA’s warning of civil suits is the wrongful arrest of Tamieka Clarke an attorney, by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) investigators for advising her client to remain silent during an interrogation by the Unit.
Clarke had filed a lawsuit against the State demanding hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages. On July 8, 2023, she won the case after Chief Justice Roxane George, SC ruled that Clarke’s arrest was unconstitutional.
To avoid such hiccups, the PCA has made a number of recommendations in its reports.
However, the most repeated one in the three yearly reports is that “the Police Force needs to have competent lawyers to help with the training of all police”.
In recent times the Force, under the leadership of Acting Commissioner of Police; Clifton Hicken has been making efforts to educate its ranks. It has upgraded its training college to an accredited police academy. It has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the University of Guyana for courses related to its operations.
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