POLICE Commissioner, Seelall Persaud has disclosed that the Guyana Police Force and the Ministry of Human Services will be collaborating to establish a suicide hotline.

The Commissioner of Police was at the time addressing the opening of the Annual Police Officers’ Conference held at Eve Leary on Thursday. According to the Top Cop, this move is to prevent suicide within communities.
Among those present were His Excellency President Donald Ramotar, present and past senior officers of the Guyana Police Force and heads of the Disciplined Services.
However, Persaud did not go into much detail about the new initiative but said that in the initial stages volunteers will be trained as councillors and will be taking calls through the hotline.
He also told the gathering that at the Police Officers’ Conference, there would be a presentation by a Non-Governmental Organisation on the issue of domestic violence and gender-based violence. The presentation would be followed by another one which will focus on the options available to the police in addressing issues of violence, sexual offences and trafficking in persons.
The police commissioner stated that the information expected to come out of those discussions will be very helpful to the Guyana Police Force in the adoption of policies. He said that it has been proven in the past that multi-sectoral approaches to issues usually bring best practices and results.
The conference was also told that the police will continue working with schools on the reintroduction of the drug abuse reduction programme across the country and according to the Top Cop, this programme is a well-structured one which teaches drug resistance and the avoidance of violence in schools. The Force has also started to advance the traffic management programme in addressing the issue of proper road usage.
Seelall also noted that during his years of service in the Guyana Police Force, he has seen the exercise of excesses by both senior and junior ranks and as the head of the Police Force he assured that he would work to ensure the control of excesses.
(Leroy Smith)