COMMANDER ‘D’ Division, Leslie James, said with the recent boost of 26 bicycle patrols the community will be better policed and their response time to reports of crimes will be within minutes.

He added that the bicycle patrol ranks have successfully completed training in crowd control, tactical training to make arrests with the use of bicycles and how to effectively make an arrest, among other things.
Bicycle boost

James related that the bicycle patrol ranks will be doing more community-type and anti-crime approaches via bicycles and are also geared to deal with social issues and all 26 ranks are from the general duties section and can make arrests.

The senior officer said training for the bicycle patrols was done at the Leonora Synthetic Track between September 18-22 and was conducted by senior ranks from headquarters.
He lauded the efforts of ranks who participated in the recent Guyana Police Force’s debating competition and for the first time that division won.

James said they continue to make strides in their crime-fighting methods which over time has proven to be effective, since they managed to make many arrests of suspects who have since been passed through the courts. He related too, that they had resuscitated some defunct community policing groups and have established new ones in that division, always seeking to foster better relations with the community.

Training
In addition, James stated that they had implemented several community relations projects and they were in the process of constructing a library in the compound of the Leonora Police Station, all for the benefit of the community as well as for the police. Use of the library will be free of cost.

With his ‘open door’ policy, James said he is always willing to interface with citizens in an effort to develop good relations and establish partnerships with the business community.
“We have also been able to benefit through the Justice Education Society (JES), a Canadian organisation working with Guyana to strengthen our justice system and ‘D’ Division was able to have their crime investigators being trained specifically in areas like forensic video analysts, care, handling and deposition of property [evidence] crime scene management, major case management, investigative training and implementation. Even our prosecutors were exposed to training, “James said.

He stated that the training was necessary, so they had a first-hand look at the First World type of approaches to those aspects of investigation to bring them up to that level, so the community would have a little more confidence in the local force.
James pointed out too, that his staff also benefited from training as to how to interview suspects and how to obtain caution statements for greater transparency and integrity to show the judge/jury that the person was not put under duress, beaten, or promised anything.

The assistant commissioner told the Guyana Chronicle that the training equipped ranks as to how to gauge a suspect’s demeanour when taking a caution statement and the use of forensic video, which can be used in court cases.
James said various techniques of statement-taking was part of the training programme and so far, they have seen significant changes in that division, courtesy of the JES.

In that division, the commander explained that they also have ongoing in-house computer training for both ranks and civilians at their computer centre at Leonora Police Station and they had the input of stakeholders in terms of facilitators.

No need for concern
The commander told this publication that generally there was no need for concern in the division
He explained that whenever they received a call via the Operations Room, within minutes the ranks should be on the scene in good time.

“I believe that our service to the community is paramount and it speaks to assurance when people see police at the scene. I don’t like to hear or read in media reports somebody made a report and the police did not show up. Fortunately, we never had that issue in this division,” James said.

He noted that he gave a directive to ranks of the Operations Room to never tell a caller they don’t have a vehicle or ranks to respond to reports of crime.
He explained that ranks should instead ask for a contact number and get back to that caller instead of offering a lame excuse.

James said, “We have motorcycle, bicycle and mobile patrols along with the anti-crime patrol as well. In terms of figures, I cannot disclose that for security reasons, but we are adequately covered.”

The commander added that they had adopted a pro-active approach to crime-fighting which saw a 50% decrease in serious crimes in the division and a clear-up rate of 56%. He pointed out that communication between ranks was very important for instantaneous action, but what they had was not sufficient and with the additional bicycle patrol boost they need to be up to par.