“Corrupt, disrespectful & lazy police ranks will be weeded out” – Commander Hicken
By Leroy Smith
[www.inewsguyana.com] – Assistant Commissioner of Police and Commander of the ‘A’ Division, Clifton Hicken has made it clear that disrespectful, corrupt and lazy ranks will be weeded out from the Guyana Police Force.
Hicken gave the stern warning while carrying out the traditional half yearly Commander’s inspection at all police stations within his division. The Diamond, Grove, East Ruimveldt, East La Penitence, Kitty, Alberttown and Timehri police stations were inspected, along with others.
Assistant Commissioner of Police and Commander
of the ‘A’ Division, Clifton Hicken during one of his
inspections. [iNews’ Photo]
“As of now no minibus is to be emptied unless there is an accident or some emergency in terms of drugs or guns found inside the vehicle. Do not inconvenience the members of the public because you have the authority to do so. Minibus drivers and conductors can be summoned. Summon them to court, success rate is not by the number of people at stations, it’s counted by the number of successful prosecutions you have at the courts,” Hicken said.
Issues including dress code, interaction with civilians, adherence to the GPF SOP, punctuality, rouge cops, records management, unauthorized dissemination of information, domestic violence, care of state assets, abuse of power and corruption were all addressed by Commander Hicken.
“You have no authority to tell members of the public that you do not have transportation and it’s only one police working… there is a SOP in the division where you come to the duty officer and the duty officer will send the closest patrol because we always have patrols in the communities and station districts so for you to tell members of the public that you do not have resources and vehicle, is very disrespectful to the members of the public and laziness so we will deal with you; we will send you on the road because you are embarrassing the members of the Guyana Police Force,” Commander Hicken said.
The issue of police ranks, who give preference to influential persons in society and to those with the spending power, did not escape the attention of Hicken, who said it is engaging the attention of the Administration.
“You are neglecting the poor and focusing on the rich because you want gains and my take on that, is that it is corruption and if you are found culpable you will go before the courts and you will have your full share of the criminal justice system because we are not going to sacrifice the majority for the minority, it’s the other way around,” the Commander implored on the ranks.
It was also pointed out that members of the public are afraid to share information with the junior ranks of the Force.
“While you are seeing your personal gains you are not seeing the dangers that you are putting your colleagues in because people information, if it is not properly shared and processed and filtered and transformed into the intelligence can hurt people. We have all these policemen and women here and you realized that people around you are doing illegal things but you are not telling the police because you know that you are getting a drawback it does not arguers well for the Force. Because of your dishonesty the whole Force is being stained because persons of questionable characters are saying if you can take then others can take too.”
Commander Hicken was accompanied on his visits by his Divisional Crime Officer, Traffic Officer and Head of the Firearm section as well as the Sub Divisional Officers.