OPR: Can it deliver

May 18, 2026 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

(Kaieteur News) – When a member of the New York Police Department hears mention of the IAD, red madness takes over. IAD stands for Internal Affairs Division. IAD is not respected by its cop constituency. It is feared. Feared like the Grim Reaper’s chainsaw. IAD snoops around, builds files, can make or break a career. In New York, despite its human side-politics, relationships, limits-the IAD is as serious as a stroke and as crippling. In this country, the Guyana Police Force has its Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), and though I can’t vouch for how it compares to the NYPD’s IAD, it now has a big job involving a big name, namely, a Deputy Commissioner of Police, who made big news.

A camera, a call, and a calling off, as alleged, and making the rounds in sprawling cyberspace. How does the OPR stand? What will it do? When will Guyanese hear the outcome? What kind of outcome should be expected? Right off the bat, I have a problem. Two small ones; but both possessing some significance. Top Cop, Mr. Clifton Hicken, was impressive: “This intervention is concerning because it appears to have been made without verification and outside the chain of command.” The facts speak to Commissioner Hicken’s pains in the gut. The roadside incident involved a junior rank, and where a very senior officer intervened seemingly improperly. The corporal on duty was scolded, ordered to move on and to allow the female claiming to be a police officer to proceed. The fallout is a Deputy Commissioner of Police is now under the OPR’s microscope. Small problem number one: how will this finalize? The DC has the means to take care of himself. I am concerned about the lowly corporal. Would he be hauled over the coals for not turning off his bodycam? C’mon folks, welcome to Guyana, so there’s nothing out of the way that concern. Here’s a bridge to help connect some dots. Remember how a handshake got a police rank dispatched to the remote interior overnight. There happened to be more than one of such, ah, transfers now so routine in the GPF’s operations. I hope that Commissioner Hicken, who has comported himself like J. Edgar Hoover on this occasion, will go the full nine yards and share with Guyanese the outcome of the OPR investigation. It’s the right time to move to problem number two.

The OPR (Office of Professional Responsibility) has a bag of bees to fetch. Investigate the roadside intervention. The OPR has its work cut out for it. My problem is how much it is cutout for the job before it. The alleged intervener is not a Deputy Inspector, but a Deputy Commissioner. For want of a better analogy, can a minister in any government probe a Prime Minister? What kind of a job could that be: one with sting and zing? Or a nicely packaged con job? In a normal place, the head of the OPR reports directly to the commissioner. But Guyana is not a normal place, nor is the GPF held in normal esteem, i.e., as a respected professional organization. It would be constructive, if Commissioner Hicken would do the necessaries. Say a word, clear the air. So, what is touted as an OPR investigation is not a matter of going through the motions. Thanks, Mr. Commissioner.

In this shaky setup, I make this recommendation to Pres Ali. Sorry to jump heads, Minister Waldron and Commissioner Hicken. It’s time that the Guyana Police Force be overseen by a group outside its command structure. A Civilian Review Board would inspire heaps of confidence in the matter of the deputy commissioner, the corporal, the camera, and the calling off. The whole calling and calling off culture. From roadside to inside stationhouses. Thanks for listening.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper)

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GHK Lall, IAD, Internal Affairs Division, NYPD, Office of Professional Responsibility

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