Guyana Police Force – 5000 finest

Dec 16, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard Truths…

GHK  Lall 

Kaieteur News-  I love it.  Well done, I say to the 5,000 in the Guyana Police Force (GPF). The PPP Government stepped up with $173 million in thank you(s), and should be showed up. I do.  And to the 5000 senior and junior recipients in the GPF, a warm thank you on behalf of all Guyanese. This is as good a December present as has been received in a long time.  Now for the rough sailing.

Best Cop, Best Detective, and the best of and such and such all have a resounding echo, an inspiring ring.  Runners-up are not forgotten, not even those who were edged out in making the honorable mention mark.  Good cops, good records, and 5000 of them. A sizable number and a probably huge fraction of the Force, indeed.  From that context, comes this spoiler, the first hard question.  With so many good cops, why are they still so many bad ones?  The GPF is not the New York Police Department, with its overall strength of about 40,000 bodies, of which approximately 30,000 are in uniform. So, 5000 of that 30000 is a mere 16% at best.  Follow my train here:  I am thinking of how this could be in the GPF, with 5000 professional and industrious and trusted ones, which must be at least one on four, if not as many as one in two of the total GPF strength, at its best?

To clear the air, the thrust of my inquiry has absolutely nothing to do with the qualifying criteria for recognition, nor the selection process.  My focus is that with 5,000 noblemen and noblewomen in the GPF, there should not be anywhere close to the number of bad cops in this most crucial of national agency. For sure, there will be bad cops, like there are bad doctors and lawyers; and, if I may be permitted, bad ministers and bad pandits and priests and maulanas. But with so many good cops (duly honored) in such a small force, that is a considerable presence in and of itself.  What is meant by this?

At any time that there are 5,000 pairs of eyes, 5,000 ears, and 5,000 mouths in 5,000 ethical minds, they must be seeing and hearing and speaking from the thinking that comes.  About wrongdoing in the GPF.  About who the rogue cops are.  About who knows in the upper management ranks of the GPF and who does nothing.  About who themselves (seniors) may be part and parcel of, er, what doesn’t match up well with the mission statement and the policy and procedural manuals of the GPF.  In a shorter version: who condones, who covers up.  Here is something to think about fellow citizens.  If Guyana has 50 vibrant and devoted presences, untarnished and unselfish ones, in civil society, what kind of different country there could be.  For clarity, 50, not 5000, not even 500.  Incidentally, unselfish should be given a political interpretation.  I assert, I insist, that 5,000 is one hell of a formidable and feared presence.  At least, it should be.

Because those tempted to push the envelope of abuse would be anxious of discovery, fearful of a misstep.  Because those who may be inclined to view the GPF as a channel to shakedown the law-abiding, or hold the lawbreaking to ransom, would be compelled to think twice.  Too many eyes,with even the night having eyes.  Eyes that see, and record.  And report.  For the record, let it be noted that I am blindly accepting that each of those 5,000 hailed and haloed police officers and ranks are truly deserving of their verbal accolades, their hefty reward packages.  I am trusting the process that came up with 5,000 good cops, out of the ordinary Guyanese policemen and policewomen.  May I not have committed a fatal blunder.

A quick scan of the news noted that the 5,000 operate in many different sections of the GPF.  More good news.  My expectation, therefore, is that the roads will get a facelift.  Not City Council facelift, but traffic enforcement facelift.  Since I am proven glutton for punishment, there is another expectation, which represents another facelift.  When citizens with a problem contact the GPF, they get a satisfactory response and professionally responsible action.  When there is a huge development that envelops the GPF in a cloud (alleged high fraud at high levels, massive drug busts, among others) that the top police management makes it a duty to inform the Guyanese people properly and early.  In a small GPF with 5,000 pleasing ones, there are more than enough bodies to create quite a racket over malfeasances and malingering, and assorted other mischiefs.  There must be more noise, more exposures, aka whistleblowing, if a conspicuous dent is going to be put in the perception of what the GPF is about, how it goes about its sensitive business.

Buoyed by the news of 5,000 good cops, my expectations are sky-high.  More than the perception of how the GPF has deteriorated must be vanquished, the reality must be erased.  One last thing from me personally to Top Cop Hicken and Crime Chief Blanhum: I still have cybercrimes committed against me that remain unsolved.  I am of the firm belief that both of these fine officers and gentlemen in the GPF know who the perps are.  I help them: in and out of parliament.  Both must remember also that no one is above the law, and that no law-abiding citizen’s rights should be trampled upon.  Not even when oilmen and the henchmen of headmen are involved.  Do duty, commissioners.  More could be added to that finest 5,000 in the GPF.

(Guyana Police Force – 5000 finest)

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• 5000 professional, bad cops, PPP Government, thank you, thinking that comes

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