Many recruits who have joined the security services have obviously done so with the criminal intention of using their status for nefarious activities to enrich themselves at the expense of the society that they are constrained by the nature of their mandate to serve and protect.

Of recent times the credibility of the joint services has been taking a battering because of the criminal actions of some of the ranks.

Rapes, torture, robberies, carjackings; and even worse, murder – incidents that have periodically erupted like a volcano to demoralise the joint services have simultaneously destabilised the image of Guyana’s security services, to the extent where the trust that society should repose in the uniformed ranks mandated to protect the people of the nation and the country is being consequently eroded.

Gone are the days when the sight of someone in a police uniform provided assurance of safety for members of the society, which is more than sad; it is tragic, because this generalised perception of the security services gone maverick is far from the reality.

The reality is that day after day members of our security sector slog, oftentimes under bad conditions and for long hours in rain or broiling sun, to do their job in the best way they know how.

However, only the ones unresponsive to the needs of persons within the society are highlighted in the media. Those who offer comfort, assistance and protection to members of the public on a daily basis are almost never mentioned.

The injustice to the latter ranks is that they are tarred in the eyes of the public with the same brush that has painted the miscreants in the force.

The Guyana Chronicle is therefore willing to provide space in its letter columns to anyone who has had a pleasant or positive encounter with a member of Guyana’s security services in an effort to restore public trust and confidence in the army and the police.

However, it is imperative that the heads of these two organisations strategise to identify, isolate, and take harsh and necessary punitive actions against those whose actions harm instead of help the members of society and thus tarnish the image of Guyana’s security services and, ultimately, on our country and consequently on our people’s development