–acting Top Cop gives police commanders Monday deadline to fix precincts
–promises to create cohesive command structure within the GPF

COMMANDERS of all 12 of the Police Regional Divisions were told by acting Police Commissioner, Mr. Clifton Hicken, to “put your houses in order” and they have from now until Monday to ensure this is done.

“Commanders, you are accountable for the officers and ranks under your command. I don’t want you to micro-manage but you must have a hands-on and effective approach to managing your respective divisions,” the Top Cop told the twelve commanders at a closed-door Executive Leadership Team (ELT) meeting held on Wednesday in the boardroom of the Officers’ Training Centre in Georgetown.

“We cannot take things for granted anymore, so wake up commanders…we need to get busy,” he instructed.

Mr. Hicken, during the highly interactive leadership session, took the opportunity to thank his commanders for their overwhelming support. He, however, pointed out the need for a much higher level of cohesion and teamwork in the overall command structure of the Force.

He related that he and others in the ELT will ensure that every effort is made to have a more cohesive command structure whereby all the commanders are working in unison, as “one body” with a common purpose to serve and protect.

He also said standardisation is necessary in order for the Police Force to achieve this cohesiveness at the commanders’ level.

“And so, gone are the days when you’re going to have one commander with all the knowledge and the other commanders searching for knowledge. We don’t want a half-balanced police force.

We want all the commanders to be doing the same thing across the spectrum. And so commanders will communicate more often than ever and learn from each other’s experiences and best practices,” Mr. Hicken said.

Alluding to the reality that there is no such thing as a “perfect person” or any one person who knows everything, the Top Cop said persons are all ignorant of something.

“I want a cohesive command structure as we cannot work in isolation. So don’t allow the minority to blind the vision of the majority. If you want to swim against the tide you will swim alone,” the Top Cop declared.

CHANGE IS CONSTANT
Alluding to the age-old notion by Albert Einstein that “the measure of intelligence is the ability to change,” Mr. Hicken told the commanders that the only thing that remains constant in life is change and they must be prepared for the strategic and visionary changes that will take place in the Guyana Police Force.

He also advised the commanders to “do introspection” and, where necessary, change their mode of operation in terms of how they manage the officers, inspectors and other ranks under their command. In this regard, he stressed that there will be no room for compromise when it comes to professionalism and accountability in the discharge of their duties as senior members of this noble profession.

Like the previous days this week (Monday and Tuesday) when he met with all the Sergeants and Inspectors of the Police Force, the acting Commissioner has entrusted an extensive mandate to the commanders to raise “the ethical standards and behaviour because it starts with us”.

COMMUNITY OUTREACHES
Mr. Hicken told his commanders to ensure that they go out into the communities in their respective divisions and interact with the residents and get to know them and understand their challenges.

“It is mandatory that you interact with the communities more often now than ever,” Mr. Hicken told the commanders.

Deputy Commissioner ‘Administration’ (ag), Mr. Calvin Brutus, also spoke at length with the commanders, during which he touched on a number of administrative issues that relate to the police divisions, specifically, and the entire Guyana Police Force in general.

Among the issues that Mr. Brutus spoke on were: the GPF’s strategic plan 2022 to 2026, training, diversity and recruitment, decentralisation of services, community relations programme, infrastructure development, vehicle inspection and maintenance, inventories at stations, general returns and paying attention to the standing orders, theft of GPF’s assets, efforts being made to change and update the Force’s Standing Orders, etc.

The twelve commanders present at the ELT meeting were: Commander Regional Divsion #1, Superintendent Himnauth Sawh; Commander Region #2, Superintendent Shivpersaud Bacchus; Commander Region #3, Senior Superintendent Mahendra Siwnarine; Commander Region #4A, Assistant Commissioner Simon McBean; Commander Region #4B, Woman Superintendent Denise Griffith; Commander Region #4C, Senior Superintendent Khali Pareshram; Commander Region #5, Senior Superintendent Kurleigh Simon; Commander Region #6, Superintendent Boodnarine Persaud; Commander Region #7, Superintendent Dion Moore; Commander Region #8, Senior Superintendent Michael Kingston; Commander Region #9, Superintendent Raphael Rose and Commander Region #10, Superintendent Hugh Winter.

The other persons in attendance at the Executive Leadership Team meeting were Deputy Commissioner ‘Operations’ (Ag), Mr. Ravindradat Budhram; Head of Special Branch, Senior Superintendent Errol Watts; Head of the Special Organized Crime Unit, Senior Superintendent Fazal Karimbaksh; and Head of the GPF’s Corporate Communications Unit, Mark Ramotar.
Unavoidably absent from the high-level meeting was Deputy Commissioner ‘Law Enforcement,’ Mr. Wendell Blanhum.