Guyana close to having internationally accredited police academy – President

Commissioner with the communities and with the Guyana Police Force, so engagement – technology, engagement – communities, that is also an important part of where we are positioning the Guyana Police Force.”

He stressed that it’s not only community policing alone but rather “community security” which is having communities integrated in the ownership of their own security, “having community integrated in the building of their own security for those communities.”

Pointing out that the government is investing in infrastructure, building safe spaces, recreational facilities, and parks for families, Ali said, “So what constitutes community is much more than the old thinking of community policing, this community I am talking about is building how the Guyana Police Force integrates itself in building sustainable communities where we support and foster family development, networking within the communities, the building of relationships within the communities, and how do we use the community as a tool to instill values, instill discipline and instill a community ownership approach to building wealth, to building wealth and to support each other.”

According to him, citizens are to expect “modern outposts in each community” with outposts being heavily technologically advanced “so you will see a lot of technology within these outposts and with quick response assets.”

“We are building out these smaller, more agile units to respond faster, to integrate greater, and to build relationships within the community, so the structure will change and you will see more efficient, faster, agile units”, he stressed.

Meanwhile, President Ali also said that the development within the Guyana Police Force in the last year is something to be proud of, “its human resource development, the performance improvement, the improvement in productivity and the improvement in results, save and except, the situational role that we must deal with and we have to work in a comprehensive way with all stakeholders in finding and bringing innovative approaches that will deal with the fundamental problem that is the way people think and behave and act on the road.”

Ali said that it is unfortunate that innovative ways of enforcement of the law have to be developed “when it is within the power of all of us, within the power of every driver, every road user to act and behave in a manner that is befitting of what is expected of them on the roadways …”

Noting further the rapid development in the country, Ali said that when you look at the size of “our fiscal implementation space, look at the size of the budget for every agency, you will understand that the system, our institutional systems were never built to support this magnitude of expansion and growth.”

Ali said that luckily now there is technology available that provides the opportunity to effectively bridge that gap in a shortened time frame, “for sure we do not have the human resource assets now to deploy in the scale that is required in many sectors, engineering, security, construction.”

Additionally, the President said that the human value of appreciation must be noted too, pointing out that in some cases there are “good police” officers who would have worked thirty years and retired as a constable since the system is designed in such a way “there are numbers and ratios that you have to fulfill in terms of senior command, to constable, to sergeant and all of these things.”

The President then stressed that an approach must be developed where the human assets “feel appreciated and feel counted for after thirty years of service, after ten years of service, after fifteen years of service.”

“And that is important for future transition also so that is something we are looking at, we must look at”, he said.