Latest update September 28th, 2026 10:20 AM
A limping GPF
Editorial…
Kaieteur News- The Guyana Police Force (GPF) is seemingly in a race with itself to outdo what it has done before, sink to still lower depths. It is taken for granted these days that the GPF is suffering from a pathological sickness. The sum of individual corruption is dragging down an institution that can now struggle to carry its weight. This should be worrying for every citizen, for as diseased and as weakened as the GPF is, almost in the throes of life support, the plug cannot be pulled.
Police corruption is a form of misconduct in which law enforcement officers have violated their oath and code of conduct and abused their power for personal monetary gain or any other type of personal benefit gained illegally as a result of the officer’s position or authority. This type of corruption may involve one or a group of officers.
It is a betrayal of public trust, departmental policies and human rights. It involves soliciting or accepting bribes in exchange for not reporting a crime, the selling of drugs, the theft of money from drug dealers, assaults, fabricated arrests, issuing false reports and falsifying evidence in order to secure convictions of civilians and suspects, stolen goods which officers have access to through their investigations, and ticket fixing by accepting bribe to cancel or not issue traffic tickets to drivers who violated the road ordinances.
It has been known for years that corruption is endemic in the police force from the highest to the lowest level. The massive driver’s license examination scam that was unearthed last April is a classic case of police corruption in the country. Due to the lack of data, it is not possible to measure the level of corruption in the police force, thus the true scale is anybody’s guess. Despite this limitation, the public believe that police corruption is a widespread problem. The prevalence of police corruption in Guyana has somehow become the norm rather than the exception and may even be institutionalized. There is a code of silence among police officers that prevents many corrupt acts from coming to light–it discourages officers from reporting the misconduct of other officers. Due to the existing culture, many officers are willing to tolerate corrupt behaviour rather than expose their colleagues.
Studies have pointed to the rotten apple theory which shows that most corruption stems from just a few dishonest or unethical officers, but the entire force is branded as corrupt due to the actions of just a handful of officers. However, many believe that police corruption is not just limited to a few rotten police officers as suggested. One of the reasons put forth for police corruption is that many policemen are underpaid and desperately in need of extra money to survive, and also because they have easy access to money – such as that seized from the sale of illegal drugs – or the means to get it without too much scrutiny, such as when there are massive drug busts.
So, what is it that Guyanese have in their police force, what are they left to expect? What new bombshell is likely to explode out of the GPF quarters? To describe this as a nest of corruption or a web of police deception does not begin to come close to what is happening inside this most vital of national institutions. It would be the height of understatement. We say this for the solid reason that the sum of what has been coming out of the GPF indicates that it has its own institutional epidemic that drains it of vitality and exposes every citizen to danger. It would be of enormous help if the government would tell a straight story and the whole of it to the public relative to the true state of the GPF. At least. Guyanese could be forewarned, brace themselves and secure themselves.
However, as in any society that has some inclination to law and order, a limping police force is better than having none to maintain the line between law and chaos. This is the unhappy dilemma that Guyanese face: in quick succession, several developments, none on the comforting and lawful side, has wounded the GPF and reduced it to a shadow of itself. The irony is that the government maintains the façade that all is well, and that what has come to light is nothing over which to lose sleep. President Ali himself has been part of this unconvincing charade, which only makes matters worse, as events are showing the GPF in a poorer light.
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