THE Guyana Police Force has among its training facilities a department which focuses strictly on training ranks to serve in the Tactical Services Unit (TSU).The Force saw the establishment of the Tactical Services Training School in October last year, after Police Commissioner Seelall Persaud took over the reins of the organisation.

Senior Superintendent Errol Watts, who was then a Superintendent of Police, was assigned direct oversight of the TSU as the officer-in-charge.

While covering the same syllabus as the Felix Austin Police College, the TSU Training School takes training a bit higher with respect to weapons training. According to training instructor Sergeant Floyd Lewis, the main focus of the school is weapons training.

The school graduated its first batch of students last month, after opening its doors in October of last year. The first recruits were taken from the Felix Austin Police College after a very thorough screening process.

In addition to the special weapons training, the school has a focus on academics, trade, and other skills, which are all part of the activities that determine the percentage one gets as an evaluation of performance on the course.

The inaugural batch of trainees of the Tactical Services Unit Training School comprised thirty young men, who, despite having graduated are still occupying the sleeping, dining, and other accommodation facilities of the school, which is located in the compound of the Director of Public Prosecution at Rabbit Walk, Eve Leary, Kingston, Georgetown. They will, however, give up that space as soon as the school’s next batch of recruits has again been shortlisted from the Felix Austin Training College after their basic training.

Recruitment is done by the Force Training Officer, Senior Superintendent Paul Williams; Staff Officer 1 of the Police Administration, Senior Superintendent Maxine Graham; and Force Recruitment Officer, Assistant Superintendent Small.

At the moment, there are 102 persons in the Felix Austin Police College; and of that number, thirty persons are to be transferred to the Tactical Services Unit Training School. The Police Force is, however, unable to send those thirty persons over just yet, given impending elections on May 11; but as soon as that period is over, the transfers would be made, and the school will begin training its second batch of recruits.

During a visit to the school on Thursday, April, 10, it was observed that the young men were not just involved in weapons and drill training, but were also into skills training. With the use of blocks, they constructed a walkway from the Tactical Services Unit Headquarters stretching several metres to their training school inside the DPP compound.

They were also instrumental in constructing a sanitary block aback the training school. It was, moreover, evident that other skills were abundant among the young men, who created a sketch of a revolver which was posted on a wall inside the school and labelled. That sketch is used as part of the teaching aid for the school.

When it comes to honesty and hygiene, Tactical Services Unit gets a grade of 99.99%, based on the information gathered and evidence seen respectively.

Recruits are mandated to get out of bed at 05:00 hrs each weekday, and immediately after getting up, all beds must be neatly made up and ready for any unannounced visit or inspection. The sheets used on the beds are white, which represent purity.

There is no complaint that can be levelled against the recruits by visitors who tour the barrack room, or experience visiting the dining area, or even checking out the sanitary block. One can also say the same about the entire surroundings of the training school.

Sergeant Lewis, who has spent most of his police life as a training instructor, believes that the recently commissioned training school is one that can rival any well-established international training school in several aspects of its operations.

He said that starting up the school was not easy, as it was faced with teething problems, but those were overcome.

We also spoke with the best graduating student from the virgin batch, 20-year-old Andre Harry of Paradise Village, West Coast Berbice, who completed his secondary school education with eight subjects at CSEC, with grades 2 and 3.

Before getting into what the training has earned him, and how he was able to adapt, he was asked about his decision to enter the Guyana Police Force, to which he swiftly responded: “I never wanted to be a police officer, but now I am considering making it my career of choice.” Harry said he also wants to attend the University of Guyana to study Security Management, and later return to do Criminal Law, since that is a burning passion he now has.
As to his decision to enlist in the Guyana Police Force, the young man said he wants to change the perception members of the public have about police ranks.

He shared an experience from when he was 17 years old, wherein he was walking along the roadway with a relative who was eight years older than him. His relative was singing as they walked, when a police patrol pulled up alongside them and one of the ranks ordered the relative to “Stop singing on the road!” and the relative immediately complied, became scared, and headed home.

Harry said he considers that incident as an abuse of power, and something that should not ever happen to anyone else, and that also encouraged him to join the Force so that he can be part of a process of changing those little things.

Harry’s parents are both deceased, but he has six other siblings, three of whom are still in school while one is a stay-at-home wife, another is in the Police Force and one attends the University of Guyana.

By Leroy Smith