HEAD of the Guyana Police Force, acting Commissioner (CoP) Seelall Persaud, has commended ‘A’ Division Commander, Clifton Hicken for his leadership of the division over the last few months.

Speaking last Friday during the delivery of the feature address at a luncheon for senior and junior ranks of the Police “A” Division, acting Commissioner Seelall Persaud declared: “The division started high in terms of crime for the first quarter; the rates for the first quarter were higher than for the corresponding period last year. However, due to the stewardship of your commander, his own leadership style (of) walking the ground and dwelling among his subordinates…championing some of the reforms that we have introduced this year has led the division to be 5% below the rate of serious crimes, and that is an amazing achievement: Starting off after the first quarter being 7% above and bringing it down to 5 percent is a distinguished task by the commander, and you, the senior and junior members of the division.”

The Commissioner said Hicken has also championed the social crime prevention programme, starting off with the Impact Albouystown and then reaching out to several other communities, even as the Force started off working since last year with the Cops and Faith Network, which added to the relationship between the police and members of the communities.

The Top Cop said that in the area of policing social events, ‘A’ Division has also championed that cause. He pointed to the historic hosting of major social events in Georgetown and said ‘A’ Division was each year reporting less and less incidents, with the most significant being traffic control during events such as football, cricket, international and regional shows, and state visits. All these, he said, have by and large been problem free.

The commissioner said it was unfortunate that he could not report the same success for the traffic countrywide. He pointed to the many initiatives which have been implemented to deal with the traffic congestion and the rates of accident, and said that accidents have been on the increase.

He said the Force recently embarked on some high impact operations and, knowing the commander, “I am pretty sure that he will jump behind that and have sufficient focus on how we use the roadways and discipline the road users, so that we can create the type of change that we need to create in order for us all to be safe.”

Commissioner Persaud also touched on the hot button topic of police abuse and brutality, citing decrease in the number of reported cases in the division as he referred to the incident at Timehri involving Colwyn Harding.

“Since the incident at Timehri, I am happy to say that there are no significant issues, which is another good thing and means that we are changing our own approach to work, and that we are showing compassion to the people whom we serve, and that we are practising what we have been trained to do in keeping with the Standard Operating Procedures, and that is a significant change I would like to see continue”, the Commissioner added in his presentation.