[www.inewsguyana.com] – While there is no clear indication as to whether there will be early elections in Guyana, the Guyana Police Force has sought to strengthen its fighting skills to address the issue of crowd control with the use of minimum or no force.

iNews today, Friday, September 19, stumbled upon police ranks at the Brickdam Police Station engaging in riot training.

When contacted, Commander of the ‘A’ Division, Clifton Hicken explained that the police ranks are at all times undergoing various levels of training.

“We don’t know that our training is geared specially for any elections, what we know is that we need to ensure that our ranks are continuously trained to deal with all occurrences and those training will be conducted in and out of any particular season,” the Commander said.

iNews observed that approximately twenty ranks were being supervised in their training by Assistant Superintendent Anthony Vanderhyden, who is the No1 Sub Divisional Officer; he was assisted by Cadet Officer Anthony Austin, who operates out of the Alberttown Police Station.

iNews was also informed that throughout the week the police have been undergoing similar training in several parts of the city.

In today’s session, the ranks were being schooled in the manning of plastic barricades which are usually carried by those in the front line of a riot operation.

There have been several cases in the past where the police were accused of excessive force and their inability to disburse disruptive crowds and gathering.