DURING the Guyana Police Force (GPF) Awards and Incentives Ceremony at Eve Leary earlier this week, Police Commissioner (ag), Mr Seelall Persaud announced that three new projects will be rolled out.

A Suicide Hotline will soon be established, and will see appropriate psychosocial help being administered to depressed persons calling in.

The Force has also made a recent appointment of a Chaplain, and that person would not only deal with ceremonies, but will coordinate among the faith-based organisations and experts in the GPF to provide counselling to frontline ranks who would have encountered traumatic experiences, Persaud explained.

Moreover, the GPF would be working to provide a liaison to victims of serious crimes with the objective of having GPF counsellors and those from faith-based organisations providing counselling for victims of serious crimes and relatives of those victims, and to liaise between police investigators and victims in order to provide feedback on the investigation.

In order to effectively manage those activities, the Force will soon introduce a Community Relations Branch, the Commissioner (ag) disclosed.

He noted that in the Strategic Priority Area of Performance, the police will soon establish Division-based Management Information Units (MIUs) that will use information from the ICIS and other sources to provide analyses to Divisional Commanders on projects those Commanders have undertaken in order to achieve the most effective results.

Persaud pointed out that in the Strategic Priority Area of Infrastructure, a new proactive approach, involving the SMD assisting Divisional and Branch Commanders in the preparation of budgetary proposals to address buildings, transportation, equipment and ICT needs, has been implemented. This is likely to result in proper resourcing of the Force on the basis of planned activities.

In addition, Persaud said the Force is also in process of implementing an Electronic Document Management System that will see — in the first phase — personnel, financial and stores records moving from paper to electronic databases in order to be of immense support to Operational and Strategic Decision Making.

In this area also, a Vehicle Management System is soon to be introduced, and is likely to see more effective use and care of GPF vehicles.

(By Michel Outridge)