Guyana Police Force and professionalism

Apr 22, 2023 Editorial

Kaieteur News – We welcome the announcement from a few weeks ago of the readiness of the Guyana Police Force’s (GPF) training manuals on professionalism. We look with anticipation for an improvement in attitudes and standards in the GPF at every level, from a Top Cop that is accessible and honestly listening to the most junior rank treating every citizen with the courtesy that is deserving, courtesy that must be a two-way street throughout Guyana.

It would only be to the benefit of long-disappointed, continually frustrated, citizens, law-abiding Guyanese, to have and to live with members of the GPF of both senior and junior levels, who are exemplary in professionalism. We speak of the professionalism needed in the streets, the kind of considerate professionalism that must be consistently on display in the precincts of Georgetown and those in distant outposts, the professionalism that sets an example in the offices of the GPF’s administrators, commanders, and its different levels of managers and supervisors.

It is about how to speak to citizens who have an issue, doing what is required to sustain them in a time of fear, or hurt, or loss. To be frank, we know of our streets, and there are times when there are not many GPF positives to laud. Why are there not more traffic interventions by ranks in attendance, either on foot or on motorcycles and vehicles, when clear disruptions and violations are visible right in their presence? Why do traffic stops have to be a process that is suspicious, one that reeks of ulterior motives, and which introduces real or manufactured offenders to a taste of order on the roads, Guyanese style, the GPF way? Manuals about professionalism are a commendable development, and are usually filled with what is wise and practical, but they are of limited value when they are not fully and continuously implemented.

Praise and recognition must be given to those who serve as model GPF representatives, and we have seen those happening. By the same standards, penalties and condemnation must be the record for those who betray the trust and duty placed in their hands. If we, the troubled and worried citizens of Guyana, are ever to get to a place of confidence with the GPF, then the professionalism in manuals must be the experience and reality of every single citizen in this country, regardless of their station in local society. When this is so, then we can all come to that day when we are proud of the GPF, for its members live the manuals, glow with their policy provisions and their procedures.

In a spirit of free expression, we note the words of acting Commissioner of Police, Clifton Hicken: “This is a stepping stone in the right direction that will change the professionalism of the Guyana Police Force catering for the advent of the developing oil and gas, with ex-pats (expatriates) coming into the country” (KN March 30).

This is encouraging to hear, but the same degree of preparing and catering for the arrival of foreigners in their droves, either as workers, visitors, sightseers, or others, that same mentality and identical attitude must feature brightly and consistently by the GPF when dealing with Guyanese. There cannot be one kind of professionalism extended to foreigners, while there is a distinctively lower type that is delivered to Guyanese. In other words, there must be that same pulling out of all the stops, and going the extra mile, for both foreigners and for citizens resident here. Our policing environment must be a place where one and the same standard applies to all, foreign and local.

We all know that though a perfect GPF is aspired to, it is better to condition ourselves to expect a professional one. When we come consistently close to such, then it must be cherished and ways found to improve upon what we is achieved. There is no doubt that the new GPF manuals can go a far way in strengthening the 4,000 cohort of defenders of the soil, and upholders of the Constitution. As a media house, there is a sensitive part to play, which must be done with truth and zeal. As individual citizens, it starts with us being law-abiding.

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citizens, Editorial, frustrated, Guyana Police Force’s (GPF), law-abiding, professionalism

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