Police Force to establish oil and gas, tourism units

To support Guyana’s development in oil and gas and tourism, the Guyana Police Force (GPF) will establish several new units.

And in keeping with technological advancements, a unit will also be established to deal with Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Commissioner of Police, Clifton Hicken made this disclosure on Wednesday as he addressed the opening ceremony of the Annual Officers’ Conference which is currently underway at the Officers’ Mess Annexe, Eve Leary.

The theme for this year’s conference is “Building a resilient and contemporary Police Force; Strengthening accountability, innovation and partnership for safer communities”.

During his address, Hicken highlighted the plans for the Police Force.

“Beyond enforcement, we have expanded our policing units.

“…2025-2026, we remain resolute committed to advancement efforts with the aim of fully realising the objectives set forth in our strategic plan 2022- 2026.

“Therefore we move to achieve the following; establish a police tourism unit and an oil and gas unit; we have established an aviation unit and will be boosting that unit…boost forensic, digital and scientific capability and we are going to establish a unit to deal with Artificial Intelligence,” Hicken said.

Hicken also told those ranks gathered that integrity is “non-negotiable”.

To this end, he reminded that to ensure transparency, all ranks are mandated to be equipped with body cameras when interacting with civilians.

And, according to Hicken, a revision of the Force Standard Operating Procedure (SOPs) is currently underway.

Among its success, the Force achieved a 12.2 percent decrease in serious crimes in 2024. Also, the highest number of firearms, which is a total of 178 were taken off of the streets.