HOME AFFAIRS Minister, Ronald Gajraj, yesterday said the Guyana Police Force cannot adequately deal with the changing nature of crime confronting the country, and needs a confidence boost and an improved intelligence arm.
At a public inquiry into the Force, Gajraj said the Police are daily facing new dispensations of narco-trafficking, money laundering, alien and arms smuggling and the fight requires increased training, resources and collaboration.
"Some of the crimes that we have to contend with today are of relatively recent vintage (and)...we have to address the level of training of members of the Force to effectively meet...these challenges," he told the Defence Forces Commission conducting the inquiry. At the afternoon hearing at the Supreme Court Law Library in Georgetown, Gajraj said the authorities are particularly concerned about the "changing face" of crime which assumes different proportions, especially when sensationalised.
But he said the Government realises that the Force by itself "would be inadequate" to deal with crime and security generally, and has been adopting a three-pronged approach involving the Police, Courts and Prison Service.
Prison authorities helped the Police control a violent wave of crime following the escape of five notorious criminals from the Camp Street, Georgetown jail last year February. Gajraj said Prison officers were better able to recognise some wanted fugitives who had spent a major part of their lives behind bars.
The help of the Army was also enlisted, and efforts were made to seek more support from community policing groups, which, the Minister said, can with defined roles play "an intrinsically important part" in the crime fight and security generally.
He also told the Commission that having regard to the new dispensation of criminal activities and the calibre of criminals now, the authorities have had to take "urgent steps" to build the confidence of lawmen and equip them to meet the challenges.
There were overnight joint training exercises and ranks have learnt from colleagues in Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries and farther afield. One major subject has been the gathering and analysis of information and arriving at intelligence.
"(The) intelligence arm of the Police Force, in particular, leaves much to be desired at the moment and we are working on that feverishly," Gajraj said, disclosing that the Special Branch arm of the Force is being reviewed.
He said many of its operatives became known after a while and there are now new recruitment procedures for a direct intake and separate training of staff for that unit.
Crime is also being pursued jointly with Caribbean countries at the inter-governmental level and there have been bilaterals on policing the country's borders with neighbouring Brazil and Venezuela.
"We recognise that crime has become much more organised and its very level had assumed alarming proportions...(and) "we've had a number of cross-border illegal activities," Gajraj said.
Events of narco-trafficking, money laundering, alien and arms smuggling are now everyday occurrences, he added.
"I think it is well known, and I would... describe the narco-trafficking and the arms and ammunition trafficking as the Siamese twins," Gajraj said.
Countries in Latin America and the hemisphere have put in place certain protocols to address the issue and the Minister said there are "certain spin-off situations that affect us adversely, which we have to address."
Guyana's geographical location also lends itself to the commission of some of the crimes because apart from being the English speaking country in South America, it is separated from some big countries like Brazil and Venezuela by a mere international boundary line, he noted.
Apart from the borders, the Police have to secure 270 miles of coastline and Gajraj said while some checkpoints have been established, resource limitations for better border protection are "well known".
He said the Government gets some help from the donor community, particularly the United States, but the support is more directed to the supply-demand reduction of narcotics. In this campaign, the demand reduction aspect has been neglected to a large extent, leaving more of a domestic problem which the authorities have been trying to contend with.
Gajraj said the Police have also had to grapple with cases of carjacking and kidnapping, "virtually hitherto unknown" here, with motor vehicle number plates being changed "in the wink of an eye."
The Government has engaged the help of the Caribbean Development Bank to computerise the Motor Vehicle and Traffic, Immigration and other departments and ranks have been trained in anti-kidnapping techniques. They recently tested these within specific geographic locations, based on intelligence, Gajraj said.
And there has been the influx of deportees coming here with "undesirable skills", the Minister noted, pointing out that resources have not increased significantly to deal with these situations.
He said the Government has made legislative changes and invested some $3Bln this year in the Police Force, but there is the big issue of the "three r's" - recruitment, remuneration and retention of ranks.
Within economic considerations, the administration has tried to address pay and other issues to make the Force more comfortable and attractive to members of the public who might be inclined to enlist, Gajraj said.
The Minister also discussed politically inspired violence, the ethnic composition of the Force, the Coroner's Act and the granting of firearm licences at the hearing. He is scheduled to resume testimony at 13:00 hours today.
The Commission is chaired by Appeal Court Judge, Ian Chang, Senior Counsel, Charles Ramson, Brigadier (ret'd), David Granger, Attorney-at-Law, Anil Nandlall and Maggie Bierne, a member of the Commission for the Administration of Justice in Northern Ireland.