Residents calling on Community Police Groups to do more

By Royan Abrams

Berbice residents are of the view that the Community Police Groups (CPGs) are not doing what are expected of them as robbery and other criminal activities are still prevalent.

Under the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), the Ministry of Home Affairs which is now Ministry of Public Security had launched a number of Community Policing Groups in the country with the aim of assisting the Guyana Police Force in their crime fighting efforts.

Commander of ‘B’ Division, Ian Amsterdam explained that there are enough CPGs in the region, however, more officers are needed in the groups.

He said, “this was something that was started by the previous administration and of course there is a procedure, recruitment use to be done by the police force but now we recruit and the selection is being done by the ministry of Public Security.” Currently, there has not been any recruitment exercise, he said.

The Commander said the division is currently working along with the groups to help to identify strangers and suspicious activities in the communities they are responsible for.

“We are working on them so that they can be of more use to the division and to the police force by increasing their performances and effectiveness” he related

News Room was told that there are usually two CPG officers in each community but presently this is not the case.

There have been a significant number of robberies in the region recently.