Dear Editor, April 25, 2016 Source

Congratulations to the Guyana Police Force for recently graduating two hundred and ninety five recruits. It was quite an achievement to simultaneously graduate ranks from the Felix Austin Police College, Georgetown, Richard Fikal Police College and the Felix Austin Police College B Divison. Excellent planning and execution had to come into play to pass out ranks from Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice training locations at the same time.

It was the largest group of trainees to graduate at one function since Henry Greene, Paul Slowe and Michael Harlequin and their two hundred and sixty squaddies including fifty females left the Police Training School in September, nineteen seventy four. They were members of course seventy four. It is heartening to note that there will be a large number of boots of various sizes on the ground to focus on the fight against crime and the fear of crime.

Stabroek News and Kaieteur News carried articles on the  ceremony held at the Police Sports Club, Eve Leary. The former reported that Assistant Commissioner of Police David Ramnarine delivered the charge to the graduants. He recommended that they read Understanding Human Behaviour for Effective Police Work by Harold Russell and Alan Biegel. The number two man in the force hit the jackpot. According to Russell and Biegel, “Behaviour is the major phenomenon that a policeman must deal with.

He must not only deal with the behaviour of criminals but also with the behaviour of the general public, the behaviour of his family, and his own behaviour. He can no longer regard the study of behaviour as the sole concern of the psychologist and psychiatrist. He must learn more about behaviour and the behavioural science if he is to effectively and safely carry out his job”. I am impressed with David Ramnarine’s professional approach towards policing. Sometime ago at a graduation for recruits in Berbice I posited that Ramnarine will be the next Commissioner of Police. However, the appointment of the COP is not my call. It is a political appointment. The President has the final say.

According to Kaieteur News, the Training Officer stated that during the training the ranks were exposed to elementary and essential things that they needed to know at that level. I am not certain what that statement meant. I wanted to know whether or not they were given the right tools to carry out their mandate as set out in Section 3 (2) of the Police Act Chapter 16:01, and to satisfy the expectations imposed on them by society and their policymakers.

His Excellency President Brig. David A. Granger in his address to officers at the Annual Police Officers’ Conference urged the police to be community oriented and to work with the various stakeholders not only to reduce crimes but also to solve problems in the various communities they serve. In order for law enforcement officers to be effective they must possess technical competence – that is knowledge of the law, police practice and procedure. In addition, they must develop people skills- those are inter- personal skills that will enable them to effectively deal with people.

Technical competence used to be most important now and in the future people skills are most important. Hence, it is imperative that part of their training should focus in the following areas: communication, problem solving, anger management, emotional intelligence, policing a multi cultural and diverse society, effective investigation, effectively dealing with people, cultural awareness and sensitivity, conflict resolution, anger management, capacity to act, ability to apply knowledge, critical thinking, ability to research and analyze, and information technology, so that they will not succumb to technophobia, the fear of using technology because of unfamiliarity or uncertainty as to how it works.

The police paradigm has shifted. Being community oriented must be a common attribute of a policeman’s operational life as he prevents  and detects crimes and brings offenders to justice. Therefore, every effort must be made to ensure that police ranks, more so the new inductees be trained to effectively deal with people and to understand and appreciate human behaviour.

I again make a clarion call for a Behavioural Science Unit to be made available to all policemen.

Yours faithfully,

Clinton Conway

Assistant Commissioner of

Police (retired)