The second batch of Police ranks is being trained by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to determine and deal with noise complaints, management and investigation.
The trainees during the first day of the Noise Management Training
The two-day Noise Management Training is being conducted at the Police Training Centre, Eve Leary, in collaboration with the Public Infrastructure Ministry.
During the training, the ranks will be informed of the EPA’s role in environmental protection and noise management, while another session will be conducted on strategies that will be taken for joint noise management between the EPA and the Police Force.
On Friday a field exercise was conducted where the ranks used testers to check the level of noise emanating from popular business spots in Georgetown.
EPA’s Executive Director, Dr Vincent Adams said that the training is coming along in a timely manner and recommitted his agency’s commitment to assist GPF in tackling noise.
According to Adams, the public also has a major role to play in eliminating noise nuisance, which he calls one of Guyana’s most persistent and pervasive issues.
“The agency has reaffirmed its commitment to the Guyana Police Force to strengthen their capacity to manage noise emissions. I am proud to say that this training is the second of its kind held with the Force with the first being held in November last where officers from across the country were trained. I look forward to the many more training sessions of this kind in the near future,” Adams said.
Deputy Police Commissioner, Clifton Hicken in his brief remarks said more needs to be done to ensure the public is aware of this issue and their rights.
Awareness, he added, should not be limited to the social and the printed press, “as a recommendation, we should be moving around as a task force and distributing flyers and using other means that can get across to society because they are the people that are affected or what are some of the hindrances for us to have successful prosecutions because when we ask for statements to support the report, that is not forthcoming and because it is not forthcoming, it looks as if the police aren’t taking the appropriate action. So awareness is necessary, the public needs to know their roles if they need to have the noise pollution issue managed”.
Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan implored the ranks to use the knowledge and equipment that they will be given to clamp down on this issue.
Fifty ranks were already trained in this capacity in November of 2018, with another batch of ranks expected to be trained in October.
