‘Policia’ markings on Police Force vehicles to be removed

Weeks after the Guyana Police Force (GPF) branded several of its vehicles with ‘Policia’ instead of the English word ‘Police’, a decision has been taken to remove the foreign language and replace it in smaller letters in different languages.

This is according to Vice President, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo; he made the comment while addressing residents at Dazzle Housing Scheme, East Coast Demerara at the weekend and said repeatedly that the Guyana Police Force has been instructed to remove “Policia” from its vehicles.

The noticeable change was met with rejection from a wide cross-section of citizens and Jagdeo called the move by the Force “misguided.”

“The police should have never put Policia there.

“It’s misguided. It’s still our emblem but they put Policia in Spanish and they have been instructed to change that,” Jagdeo said to loud applause from residents.

The Vice President emphasised that this should have never happened.

“They must put ‘Police’. The key thing is ‘Police’.

“Guyana is English speaking and they must put Police and they were instructed to change that. It should not have happened,” the VP added.

He explained that the Police have been advised to put the word ‘Police’ in small writing in different languages.

“They must put ‘Police’… in small letters Policia, in Portuguese, Spanish, etc because the people who are here need to know what our Police are…So they don’t get, when the Police put on their siren, they get away.”

Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn had joined the Guyana Police Force in defending the decision back in September.

He noted then that this is to cater to the “significant” number of people in the country who speak Spanish.