THE Community Policing Organisation of Guyana (CPOG), under the auspices of the Ministry of Home Affairs (M.O.H.A.), in collaboration with Help and Shelter, during this year, conducted a series of Domestic Violence seminars in Divisions A, B, C, D, E, F and G, as a way on enhancing the awareness of domestic violence in communities.
This move, has seen an appreciable increase in the number of persons within Community Policing Groups, being able to detect instances of such abuse and make timely intervention, as would nip such occurrences in the bud, and so prevent an escalation of the scourge, also referred to as ‘intimate partner violence/abuse’.
This is according to C.P.G. Liaison Officer (Georgetown District), Ms. Beverley London, who has been directly involved in the holding of such seminars/workshops.
These programmes were mounted during the period June to December, 2012 at a time when there was an upsurge in domestic violence incidents countrywide, thus the need.
The training equipped participants with a knowledge of domestic violence in its entirety: its causes, what to do when an incident occurs, Domestic Violence and Sexual Offences Acts.
The CPOG is an organisation that is not only ancillary to the Guyana Police Force, but works with communities in their everyday upliftment, London said.