…Min. Ramjattan talks up higher level of professionalism in Police Force

OVER 40 rogue and unprofessional policemen were charged and their services terminated within the last four years while the Guyana Police Force (GPF) statistics indicates that crime has decreased.

This is the perspective shared by Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan, when he appeared on the radio programme INSIGHT hosted on VOG 102.5FM.

“People seem not to want to believe crime is on the decrease because it is in the newspapers and news everyday with robberies and murders, but the reliable statistics have shown that crime is on the decline,” the public security minister said while noting that from 2009 to 2018 crime has declined.

According to GPF statistics, Ramjattan said in 2012 serious crimes reports stood at 3,760; in 2013 it was 4,204; in 2016 it was 3,330 and in 2018 it was reduced to 2,681 reports. Further, he said: “Because what has happened over the past four years, we have taken out rogue cops. Unprofessionalism is not tolerated in the Police Force, every complaint must be investigated and if there is merit, charges are laid departmentally or criminally through the advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions or Police Legal adviser.”

Minister Ramjattan said professionalism is growing in the GPF while noting that the security sector needs more resources in order to do their work properly.

Meanwhile, he said the GPF now benefits from DNA and residue testing being done at the Forensic Laboratory, “for 23 years this could not have been done under the opposition, within the past three years we have managed to get a DNA lab and so many other problems I dealt with, but now we have reached international standards.”

The public security minister said that now policemen are more comfortable with the rehabilitation and construction of several police stations countrywide.

Further, Minister Ramjattan said a pilot project on two police stations will soon see the transition of paper-based reporting to a digital format where real-time data on incidents reported can produce more standardised and accurate crime data. He said the Police Records Management Information System (PRMIS) was materialised through collaborations between the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

“This will eventually go to all the other police stations, once the pilot projects show us the difficulties at the police stations so we could correct it,” he said.

Further, he said there is now enhanced security in the city with 104 mounted poles with four cameras each attached recording activities that will be monitored through a command centre. Minister Ramjattan said the system is crucial as he highlighted that statistics show that 53 per cent of serious crimes occurs in the city hence the decision to launch the pilot project in Georgetown. He explained that the CCTV cameras will aid in crime reduction since the capacities of the system is great in addition to upgrading the 911 systems.