SAFETY and security of Guyanese are paramount and the Guyana Police Force must be very professional in its work, said A Partnership for National Unity parliamentarian, Geeta Chandan-Edmond as the budget debate continued at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre on Thursday.

“Every citizen, in every village, in every region is entitled to the same protection and guarantees accorded under the laws of our country,” she told the House, adding: “The police force is charged with protecting our people, our citizens, they must protect our life, liberty and security.”

She contended that much work needs to be done as public security is a serious matter.

“There are growing concerns about the indiscriminate use of the military to supplement the role of the police. We all know Mr. Speaker, that traditionally dire emergency situations have to emerge and the police must be seen as incapable of managing the situation, before the military is activated,” she said.

Chandan-Edmond said that the military has a different type of training for internal security situations.

“We urge careful management of this type of operation. This means that appropriate training must be provided to the police so that they can be better equipped to de-escalate threat of social unrest. There have been the recent inconsistent processes relative to detention of suspects by the police,” Chandan-Edmond told the National Assembly.

The parliamentarian, who gave her maiden speech, also said that the security forces in general must be professional in work. The police force, she noted, must also work to continuously enjoy the confidence of the people.

Reflecting on the coalition achievements, she said the APNU+AFC government built new fire stations at Corriverton, Melanie, Lethem, Mahdia, Onverwagt and Mabaruma.

“We increased the human resource capacity of the fire service which resulted in women taking their rightful place as professionals within this organisation, fire service finally got the professional mobility they deserved under the coalition government. We worked assiduously to ensure the fire service fulfilled its mandate of protecting life and property,” the former magistrate said.

On a separate matter, she impressed upon the House that the prison service must provide adequate medical facilities or medical personnel to deal with the health risk which present themselves in the prison environment in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.