Policing in ‘F’ Division being hampered by mobility; communication

 

By Leroy Smith

 

The Police ‘F’ Division covers several interior regions and according to its Commander, Senior Superintendent Ravindradat Budhram, covering the entire division, communication wise is not always an easy task.

 

 

During a recent interview, the Commander explained that due to the location of some police stations and areas within ‘F’ Division it becomes difficult for the police in those locations to make contact with Central Bartica, where the headquarters is located.

 

 

He said that sometimes police ranks would have to travel miles and even mount themselves on hills to receive adequate phone signal to send out radio messages.

“Some of the challenges we are experiencing in F Division are communications problems were some stations in the division when there is an incident they might not be able to contact me immediately but subsequent via radio set or the internet. Another major challenge facing us is the response time in terms of location. For example in the Mazaruni, if a crime is committed in that area we would have to respond to that crime on the following day,” the commander explained.

 

 

The problem of communication in those parts of the country is however not something that has just begun to affect the Police Force as similar problems have been reported in ‘E’ Division.

The News Room was told that the division has a limited amount of satellite phones and those are not adequate to address the communication woes of the Division.

 

 

With respect to getting to crime scenes, the Commander stated that there is a perception that the police in his division are very slow in responding to crimes outside of Bartica, but that is not the case.

The Senior Superintendent told the News Room that when reports are received at Central Bartica, there is a need for logistics to be put in place to deal with transportation in the form of boats, ATVs and sometimes trucks, depending on the location in which the crime took place.

Getting to the locations, he stressed also, would sometimes take days because of the terrain and weather at the time.