Latest update April 20th, 2024 12:59 AM
Oct 06, 2013 News
The idea of establishing a SWAT unit of the Guyana Police Force is not bad but it will only be effective if it is staffed by fearless, honest and loyal members who should be backed up by proper intelligence.
This is the observation of one of Guyana’s most fearless cops, Ian Smith, popularly called “Gansta”.
Smith, was part of a police crime fighting unit accused of extra judicial killings. Some of the ranks were labeled as enforcers for the disgraced US Embassy official Thomas Carroll in his visa selling racket.
Smith, who rose to the rank of Sergeant, was controversially dismissed from the Guyana Police Force a few years ago; a decision which he challenged in court and won.
He was wounded while singlehandedly engaging criminals who had minutes earlier robbed a citizen in downtown Georgetown.
He believes that the present crime fighters in the Guyana Police Force are too laid back and are not producing the results expected, given the resources available to them now.
“I am straightforward. The government giving the police the tools to do de job but the police are not producing de goods,” the former Target Special Squad agent told this newspaper in an exclusive interview yesterday.
At present Smith works in the private security industry where his skills are in demand.
“You must realize when you dealing with criminals, you can’t let criminals come and get you. You got to go after dem. Dat is de whole problem in dis country now,” he explained.
He said that blaming the government is not the way to go.
“We (Target) was not no politicians; we was police and I understand the meaning of de word police… I could stand up and tell anybody dat I proud of what I did. At de end of de day I was glad that they get a SWAT team, but I hope they do de job what de government want it for,” Smith said.
He recalled a previous attempt to set up such a unit following the disbandment of the Target Special Squad, which backfired after certain elements who were trained by the British seized the opportunity to embark on their own agenda.
“Look at it, 300 people they say hey train and it backfire; it ain’t last long. What they need is a small unit of people who are dedicated loyal and trustworthy,” Smith said.
While many have already begun to see the proposed SWAT unit as a replacement of the disbanded Target Special Squad, Smith is convinced that the present crop of criminals cannot be taken lightly.
He said that the present day criminals are not afraid to kill and something drastic must be done to protect the citizens from “these killers.”
“You have to get a unit. When they (criminals) hear de squad coming, they pack up and run.”
A lack of proper intelligence gathering is severely hampering the effectiveness of the police to halt the spate of criminal activities creating great unease in the society.
“You gather good intelligence and dis crime thing could done in a couple of months from now because is a set a youths come out now. Is nah no big people, is some youth men doing these things.”
Recently, Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee had hinted at rewarding members of the public who provided information on criminal activities to the police.
But Smith believes that the Force needs to rebuild trust for this to bear fruit.
He explained that on many occasions his unit used intelligence from outside the established intelligence mechanism of the Force.
“We had one and two friends, because fuh get information, people gah fuh trust you fuh give you information. We used to give people money outta we own pocket sometimes. A lot of these criminals are no match fuh what we had to deal with. Nuff ah dem is follow pattern. But one thing I would advise de police fuh do is fuh go after dem.”
Addressing the issue of loyalty, Smith said that based on his conversations with young policemen, more money to do the job is the main motivating factor.
“I would tell them no, when you join dis job you take an oath. You duty is to protect life and property, regardless of what. …when I was called to go on the (Target) unit in 1996, I couldn’t tell de Commissioner I ain’t going,” he said.
“I am not ridiculing anybody; the Force has a good Commissioner but whoever is placed in charge of the swat team, they gat to produce the goods.”
“We had two vehicles with 12 men and we lock it down because we had two good leaders…so when things happen we could able fuh go out there and know is who do it. We might get 92 percent and we gat fuh solve de other eight,” Smith stated.
According to Smith, the word fear was not in his vocabulary when he decided to join the unit.
He believes that fear is the main reason why the police anti crime units of today do not respond promptly to criminal activity.
Where is the BETTER MANAGEMENT/RENEGOTIATION OF THE OIL CONTRACTS you promised Jagdeo?
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