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Tasers to be used to maintain public order during elections
Deputy Commissioner of Police Simon McBean
Kaieteur News – The use of tasers by the Guyana Police Force (GPF) will play a significant role in maintaining public order during the September 1, 2025 general and regional elections, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Simon McBean has disclosed.
The move, aimed at enhancing safety and maintaining discipline amid rising public confrontations, follows the launch of a three-day taser certification course on Thursday.
In a statement released Friday, the GPF said the programme, conducted at its Officers’ Training Centre in partnership with the Amethyst School of Martial Arts and the Security Training Academy, covers training on Conducted Energy Weapons (CEWs), specifically the TX200P, and the deployment of Body-Worn Cameras (BWCs).
McBean confirmed that the use of tasers will be part of the police force’s election’s security plan.
“Policing in public order is a day-to-day policing strategy. We are preparing ourselves to use as much less-lethal force as possible, so the implementation of the taser is one of the less-lethal force options,” he said.
Taser
When questioned about how tasers would be used during the election period, McBean explained, “Tasers are for persons who are not compliant…persons that you are seeking to arrest and they are resisting police arrest.”
He also assured that the use of tasers does not pose a serious threat to citizens. “It is not something that is harmful. It is something that has been tested. The taser will temporarily incapacitate them, causing that involuntary muscle contraction, and we will be able to arrest them,” McBean said explained.
Initially, the use of tasers by the GPF was limited to traffic officers. However, Deputy Commissioner McBean noted that following the completion of the training programme, frontline officers—including traffic ranks and first responders—will be the first to be equipped with tasers. He added that, eventually, all members of the force will be trained and certified to use them.
“We are leading there, but we have to start with our frontline officers, first responders, those officers you see on patrol, trained and certified. I presume shortly we will get to the stage where all policemen become part of it,” McBean stated.
Meanwhile, during the opening ceremony of the training programme, Assistant Director of Prisons, Kevin Pilgrim provided an overview of the training, emphasising that tasers will be utilised during the impending elections.
Police in a press release said, “Mr. Pilgrim also highlighted the critical role of this training in election security preparedness.”
The use of tasers by police officers, particularly on citizens who violently resist arrest or refuse to cooperate with traffic officers, come in response to a rising number of violent altercations between traffic ranks and civilians. This prompted the GPF to issue a public statement on June 2, 2025, via Radio Eve Leary, announcing the use of tasers.
According to the GPF, traffic officers are increasingly facing significant challenges in enforcing the law, especially as more citizens are deliberately committing traffic violations and resisting lawful arrest.
The police noted that these confrontations, often involving unarmed ranks being physically attacked by motorists, have become more frequent across the country. As a response, traffic ranks will be equipped with taser guns to manage such situations more safely.
However, Traffic Chief, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Mahendra Singh, in a previous interview with Kaieteur News, clarified that the new policy does not grant police officers free rein to use tasers on citizens who act violently without first attempting to de-escalate the situation.
“A taser is a last resort, similar to any other means of force being utilised by the police in Guyana to address anyone. So, this is where it goes. A taser will not be utilised against anyone unless it is absolutely necessary that every other means or methodology that the police would apply to deal with the situation, to de-escalate the situation, to address a suspect who is arrested and/or is in custody for traffic offenses all would have been exhausted, and there’s no other means by which you can address it,” Singh explained.
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- 2025 General and Regional Elections, Eve Leary, Guyana Police Force, Maintain order, Simon McBean, tasers
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Tasers will likely kill more people than expected, if they have health
issues that the Police don’t know a damn thing about.