THE POLICE OFFICE OF PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY

THE POLICE Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) was established in 1997 during the tenure of the late Commissioner of Police Mr. Laurie Lewis, DSS, with the primary objective of ensuring that best practices obtained in all spheres of the Guyana Police Force.

The Department was set up following the participation of a number of ranks on a successful training programme that was geared towards this achievement and which was conducted in the United States of America by the International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Programme (ICITAP).ICITAP falls within the US Department of Justice’s Criminal Division and provides international development assistance that supports both national security and foreign policy objectives. Then Assistant Commissioner of Police Mr. Edward Wills, DSM, who later retired at the rank of Deputy Commissioner, was among the ranks who attended the training programme and was the first Officer appointed to head the Police OPR.

This preservation of the integrity of the Guyana Police Force was intended to be achieved by investigating allegations of police negligence, misconduct and impropriety among others, auditing Force procedures, the integrity testing of members of the Force and conducting investigations into allegations/complaints made directly to the Department by the Minister of Public Security, the Commissioner and the Police Complaints Authority.

Policemen and women, as well as the public were alerted to the role and function of the OPR; thus, the dawn of a new era in the Administration of the Force was opened to the public who was appreciative and showed more confidence in the Police Force with the establishment of such a unit that they can approach for greater satisfaction, as previously, there was no centralised area to deal with complaints against members of the Force.

The confidence and satisfaction of the public, with the results generated through investigations by the OPR led to a growing number of complaints. Consequently, with effect from September 02, 2012, the Office of Professional Responsibility was decentralised to the Police Divisions where adequate staff were posted to promptly address complaints against members of the Force.

At the conclusion of an investigation into a complaint made against a rank by a member of the public, advice is sought through the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Commissioner of Police. Based on the advice given appropriate actions, whether departmental or criminal, are expedited to ensure speedy resolutions.

Statistics indicate that for the year 2015, a total of 619 complaints against members of the Police Force were received at the OPR, compared to 496 reports in 2014. Investigations into the complaints for 2015 resulted in nine (9) police ranks being placed before the Courts on criminal charges, while two hundred and sixty (260) ranks were charged departmentally.

For the period January 01 to April 15, 2016, one hundred and ninety three (193) complaints against members of the Force have been made. So far, twenty four (24) ranks have been charged departmentally.

Capacity building of the Police OPR is continuous in terms of manpower and training. During August last year twenty eight (28) ranks attached to the unit’s Head Office and in the Police Divisions benefitted from a training programme that was held at the Police Officers’ Training Centre, Eve Leary, and which focused on Audit and Inspection and Internal Affairs Investigations. The training programme was organised under the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative and was conducted by personnel attached to ICITAP.

The Office of Professional Responsibility is guided by Section 4 of the Police (Discipline) Act of 1975 Chapter 17:01 of the Laws of Guyana and will continue under the present head, retired Assistant Commissioner Mr. Heeralall Mackhanlall, to be the unit that is bridging the gap between the police and the public in ensuring that complaints against members of the Force are addressed in an impartial and timely manner.

The main office of the Police Force’s Office of Professional Responsibility’s is based at Police Headquarters, Eve Leary, and can be reached on telephone numbers 226-8467 and 227-1926.