THE Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA) has disclosed that, as part of the continuing capacity-building process within the Guyana Police Force (GPF), five of its members attended overseas training programmes during the month of April 2013.

The ministry said, from April 8 to 19, Corporal Julio Jonas took a course on ‘Cyber Crimes’ at the Caribbean Regional Drug Law Enforcement Training Centre in Jamaica.
The aim of that was to enable participants to fully understand the complexities of cyber crimes, their implications for national security and the vulnerability of Caribbean nation states to the use of the internet and other ICT media to undertake criminal activities.
Some of the issues discussed were Internet Investigations; Examination and Analysis of Digital Evidence; Forensic IT Investigations; Search, Seizure and Preservation.
Then, from April 16 to 18, Assistant Commissioner George Vyphuis was in attendance at the Ninth International Law Enforcement Forum in Pennsylvania, United States (U.S.).
The theme of that forum was ‘Protecting the Public, Protecting the Protector: Working to minimise risks to our Citizens while ensuring Officer Safety in a constrained Fiscal Environment.’
Among the topics covered were Custodial Challenges; Public Events; Social Media and Less-Lethal Technology; Minimum Force Options and Improving Managing of Crowds; Public and Police Safety for major Public Events.

RUSSIAN FEDERATION
From April 13 to 21, Inspector Jermain Johnson, Corporal Mahendra Thuknauth and Constable Earl Rowley were participants attending a course on ‘Administration and  Detection of certain types of Crime related to the use of Computer Information and High Technology; Abduction and Trafficking; Theft of Vehicles; Road Traffic Accidents; Riots; Terrorist and Extremist Acts.’
That was held at the Nizhny Novgorod Academy of the Ministry of Interior Affairs of Russia and was sponsored by the Russian Federation.
In the case of the Home Affairs Ministry, for its capacity building, Mr. Clement Henry, Head of the Policy Research Unit took part in a programme on ‘Regional System of standardised Indicators in Peaceful Co-existence and Citizen Security’.
That was conducted from April 8 to 9, in Santo Domingo,The Dominican Republic and served to advance the institutionalisation of the standardised indicators and promote their dis-aggregation as a strategy to strengthen the ability of partner countries to use the information for the implementation of public policies, in the citizen security sector.
Additionally, from May 8 to 10, 2013, Major General (ret’d) Michael Atherly will attend a Regional Workshop on Major Events Security, in Guatemala.
Under consideration there will be, among others, matters related to security at major events and crime prevention.
The ministry said it would continue to focus on action aimed at strengthening its oversight mechanism and enhancing the operational capability of the GPF.