THE Guyana Police Force (GPF) yesterday announced that come tomorrow all the postings of senior officers which are necessary to fill vacancies will be made public.The vacancies which were created at the Criminal Investigation Department and the Police ‘A’ Division after Seelall Persaud became the Commissioner of Police and George Vyphuis retired, are in no way part of “a major reshuffling” in the Force as was reported by other sections of the media.

The Guyana Chronicle had first reported on Friday the re-posting of several ranks within the GPF to various Divisions and that report failed to attract any negative response from the Force, suggesting that our gathered information is indeed accurate.

In our Friday’s edition a story was carried which stated that Clifton Hicken will be heading the police ‘A’ Division from this week among other postings.

Those other postings which this newspaper was reliably informed is the final list along with some other smaller postings stated that Deputy Commissioner of Police Winston Cosbert will be replaced as the Deputy Crime Chief.

The Guyana Chronicle was informed that Cosbert will now be heading the Special Branch while the head of that department Senior Superintendent Leslie James will be the new Crime Chief.

Ian Amsterdam who took up the ‘A’ Division Commander post after Vyphuis retired will be posted to ‘D’ Division where he will serve as the Commander.

Also reporting erroneously on the reposting of the various senior officers is the Guyana Times Newspaper which stated that Assistant Commissioner David Ramnarine will be heading the ‘A’ Division with Clifton Hicken as his Deputy.

Yesterday the Guyana Police Force said that with the filling of the vacancies created by Seelall and Vyphuis this will consequentially cause vacancies in other areas of the Force, hence the need to execute several other repostings.

It also stated that in addition to the filling of those consequential vacancies, the other postings are necessary to facilitate a new project which the Force will soon be embarking on.

The Force has called on Kaieteur News to be responsible in its reporting since any move to the contrary has the potential to create mischief.

On Wednesday Acting Commissioner of Police, Seelall Persaud told reporters that by this week there will be some reposting of senior ranks to the various police divisions.
Persaud, however made it clear that the reposting of ranks is not a high handed approach but rather one to ensure that there is proper supervision of the various Divisions and other departments of the force.
However, on Thursday evening the Guyana Chronicle was reliably informed that already several senior officers have been informed of their likely new areas of command which takes effect this week.
Topping the list of reshuffling is Senior Superintendent Clifton Hicken who will be asked to give up the command of ‘D’ Division as he will be called upon to head the very sensitive ‘A’ Division.
Hicken will be backed up by Superintendent Moore who is presently the Traffic Officer at ‘A’ Division but from the new week will be functioning as the Second in-Command while Superintendent Brutus will be moved from B Division where he will head the operations of Traffic at A Division.
The other changes are the removal of Assistant Commissioner Winston Cosbert from the Criminal Investigation Department to the Police Special Branch while the present head of that department, Senior Superintendent Leslie James will take over the operations of the Criminal Investigation Department.
The Felix Austin Police College will have a new administrator in the person of Superintendent Adrin Simon while Paul Williams will remain the Force’s Training Officer.
Assistant Commissioner of Police Balram Persaud will remain at the helm of the Force’s Administration Division as well as Assistant Commissioner David Ramnarine who is presently in charge of the Force’s Operations Department.
By Leroy Smith