Written by Leroy Smith
The Guyana Police Force (GPF) should have an established strength of 5,000 regular members, but at the moment the force is still short of that number.
Although the force continues to train dozens of recruits, the reality is that almost every week there are those who leave the force due to retirement while some continue to be discarded due to rouge behaviours and actions that bring the force into disrepute.
In a document seen by the News Room, the Force, with the exception of Commissioners of Police and Assistant Commissioners of Police, has vacancies for every other rank within the organisation.
Those include Deputy Commissioners of Police(4), Senior Superintendent(1), Superintendents(10), Deputy Superintendents(3), Assistant Superintendents(9) Cadet officers(6), Chief inspectors(10), Inspectors(21), Station Sergeants and Sergeants(94), Corporals(204), lance Corporals(45) Constables (296).
The Commissioner of Police is responsible for all promotions up to the rank of Sergeants, and the Police Service Commission up to the rank of Assistant Commissioners of Police. The Commander-in-Chief is responsible for the appointments of Deputy Commissioners of Police and the Commissioners of Police after consultation with the Opposition Leader.
This evening (Monday, June 26, 2017), Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo when contacted by the News Room said that he had no discussions with President, David Granger, the Commander-in-Chief, on the appointment of Deputy Commissioners. He further stated that since assuming the post of Opposition Leader, no such meeting was held.
It has been more than a decade since the Police Force had its full complement of Deputy Commissioners of Police; that is four at one time. The last two Deputy Commissioners were Leroy Brumell and Seelall Persaud respectively.
In 2016 when the News Room approached the President on the issue of Deputy Commissioners of Police and their appointments, he responded saying that it was the Commissioner of Police who should be making the appointment.
The Guyana Police Force will on Saturday (July 01, 2017) commenced activities to mark its 178th anniversary and already the promotion board of the force which is headed by the Commissioner of Police has commenced short listing those who are likely to be promoted in keeping with the anniversary of the organisation.
The life of the current Police Service Commission will come to an end in September of this year. The commission was sworn in Former President Donald Ramotar in 2014.
