Dear Editor,
OVER the years, I have observed some Guyanese police officers, both men and women, bringing great shame upon their uniform, the commissioner of police and the noble institution of the Guyana Police Force (GPF), by blatantly violating their Oath of Office to serve and protect while being paid with taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars.

Some police officers are involved in skullduggery, deceit and disgraceful self-serving activities. There was a mind-blowing incident some years ago when they set fire to a male youth’s genitals. Police officers are known to be involved in theft, soliciting bribes and smuggling; some, it is alleged, even rape persons in police custody or coerce sex from those who go to police stations or outposts seeking assistance.

I am not talking about all of them. There are decent men and women in the GPF who are totally professional in their conduct and attitude. They approach their role to maintain law and order in society with discipline, mental clarity and commitment. They actually take their job seriously and strive to protect the people of Guyana to the best of their ability.
That is why it worries me deeply that there are so many examples of rotten eggs, who spoil the good name of their colleagues in the police force. Just recently, at the Timehri Police Outpost, a woman detained for drug dealing and other criminal activities, claimed that the police released her after she gave them what I describe as a pound of female flesh.

When we hear about police officers involved in corruption, brutality, bribery, deceit and especially sexual perversions, the culprits are always male. What is wrong with these men? To be fair, it’s not just within the police force. In most places where men are employed, including private security businesses, males try to take advantage of the females.

Police officers get mixed up in an astounding number of sex scandals. In May, a policeman was remanded to prison for allegedly having sex with a 15-year-old girl. In January, a woman claimed that two policemen raped her at the Turkeyen Police Station and a female rank then tried to get her to accept hush money. No less than former commissioner of police, the late Henry Green came under the microscope after an allegation of rape. It is also common knowledge that a policeman who was on duty at an East Coast police station ended up having sexual intercourse with a female prisoner, and fathered a child with her. Thankfully, he was charged and jailed.

These days, women take a huge risk by going to the police station for assistance because too many police officers behave as if they are sexually starved. In fact, they often behave like raving sexual maniacs. Several women I know, old and young, who went to the police recently for help, were bombarded by male ranks for sexual favours.
The office of the commissioner of police can easily verify this, by simply giving a female decoy a recording device and send her to a station to make a report. The decoy with her recorder will get clear evidence of how far policemen will go to get sex from any female who approaches them to make a report, even if she is a crime victim who is traumatised or depressed. This must come to an end.

It is also known that some policemen, in order to get a pound of flesh from a female complainant, will harass the person she has lodged the complaint against and even use violence against the accused person. It does not matter to such officers whether the complaint is true or false.

Some women seek the help of the police to deliver summonses, and instead of assisting some ranks want to have sex first. Recently, two police officers were among seven persons detained after an illegal firearm with a spent shell was found close to them. This is just one of the countless reports of police officers being held with illegal weapons. What does a police officer want with an illegal firearm? Is it he wants to disguise and go to rob people, aided by the information he is privy to as a police rank?

About a year ago, at the Sparendaam Police Station, I saw a sweating policeman rush into the building. He started to look desperately for a cell phone charger he had forgotten in his drawer, saying, “My God, they will steal it!” I asked him if the police would steal a charger from a drawer in the station. He replied, “What? The police are the biggest thieves!” He was right. The charger was gone from his drawer.

We know that when items are seized and stored by the police to be used as evidence (cash, weapons and narcotics etc.) some of the same police officers we put to watch the milk end up stealing the milk. Look at the ex-SWAT commander who was receiving a salary after being sent on special leave while he was being investigated, after being caught with smuggled whiskey. This is absurdity.

They should have demoted him to the lowest rank and put him to clean the station compound or barrack room. He shouldn’t have been able to receive all his benefits. Demote! Demote! Demote! That’s the way to do it. An officer who is a smuggler brings shame to the GPF as a smuggler. A smuggler is a criminal of the highest order, capable of anything, as we saw recently when they fired at the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) officers.
A former policeman who worked for my company after retirement, told me he had his own boat plying between Venezuela and Charity, smuggling goods back in the day when certain items were banned. I have noticed too, that police ranks seem addicted to their cell phones. I had to report a policeman who abandoned his important task of directing traffic at the Diamond intersection to speak on his cell phone. It is disgusting to see roadblocks all over Guyana with officers on their cell phones during these operations.

On June 14, while travelling along Church Street and preparing to turn into Irving Street, I saw a series of cars and motorbikes with young Guyanese wearing red tops and black pants and skirts. Young men and young women were sitting on the bonnets and roofs of the vehicles and they were blasting through the street with no police escort.

I said to my companion in my vehicle that this could become a crisis and people could be seriously injured or even killed. As we approached Lamaha Street, one of the drivers of this mini-motorcade braked suddenly and some of these people fell off the roof of the vehicle. Fortunately, no cars were coming or some could have been crushed. I saw one screaming and writhing in pain and it seems she had dislocated her shoulder from the fall.

I also noticed a policeman who had stopped his bike near Thomas Lands in Kitty was talking on his cell phone. I tried to tell him what I had seen but he just ignored me and kept on talking on the phone. After a while I had to abandon this attempt and leave. Such officers are bringing shame and disgrace to the police and to Guyana. As a nation, we should have zero tolerance for this behaviour. We have to do whatever it takes to remove such scumbags from law enforcement.

They taint other officers who conduct themselves professionally with pride and dignity. And there are many such good officers. As far as I know, my father, the late retired Assistant Commissioner of Police (ag) Awad Chandra Lall, was a decent policeman who served this country honourably and with respect. He was known back in the day as the ‘Berbice James Bond’ and as Inspector Lall throughout his career. Of course he is not the only one. There were and are many other great professionals.

I suggest setting up a sting operation to identify the rotten eggs within the force and weed them out. We cannot allow the need for personnel to supersede the need for discipline. I once spoke to a commissioner about this and he confessed that instead of getting rid of corrupt officers, they try to redeem them and keep them on the force to avoid training new people all over again.

We also need to review and revise the recruitment process of the GPF. Under the current system, too many unsuitable persons, some of whom have criminal tendencies, end up in law enforcement. This is wrong and it has to be fixed. We have to overhaul and upgrade the vetting of police recruits to keep out those who will bring law enforcement into disrepute.
Certain men and women of good repute in society and friendly to the GPF could be appointed as external supervisors of officers on the road, with the authority to speak to them and even sanction them and forward reports to the commissioner of police and/or the district commanders. I make these observations because I love the Guyana Police Force. I believe I have a ‘police gene’ because I feel a strong sense of loyalty and care for the police. I am even willing to volunteer my time and energy as a consultant to the police, offering guidance in areas such as station management or I can provide counselling. I am willing to volunteer my expertise, free of charge, to provide any service that will benefit the GPF and, by extension, the people of my nation.

Regards
Roshan Khan Snr