The Guyana Police Force (GPF) has dismissed as “ill conceived, malicious and extremely crass” remarks by two talk show hosts on Channels Nine and Six, who claimed that the police had discussed the idea of curtailing the recruitment of African Guyanese to strike an ethnic balance in the force.

The statements made on Channel Nine on Wednesday between 9:00 am and 10:00 am and repeated yesterday on Channel Six claimed that the force’s administration at a meeting at its headquarters on Tuesday had decided to stop the recruitment of African Guyanese.

In a press release yesterday the GPF denied that such a meeting was ever held while claiming the talk show hosts were attempting to mislead the public and members of the organisation about its activities.

“The GPF wishes to make it pellucidly clear that no such meeting was ever held at the police headquarters on Tuesday and we are very concerned with the propensity of the maker of such statements to mislead the public, the members of the force, about activities in the force. Such reckless and preposterous utterings, are obviously designed to tarnish the image and derogate the integrity of the hierarchy of the force,” the release said.

According to the release, the GPF administration has never engaged in ethnic considerations when involved in activities intrinsic to the development of the organisation.

Yesterday’s release also rejected claims that some members of the force who had applied to attend the University of Guyana (UG) had been withdrawn and replaced with three Indian and one African rank.