Overhauling of City Constabulary in 2018

…Superintendent Laurel Gittens to be new Deputy
…as King receives bashing for non-payment of allowances

By Lakhram Bhagirat

The Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) is set to begin overhauling the City Constabulary following several concerns raised by the administration over the functioning of the city’s police department.
At Wednesday’s statutory meeting, Mayor Patricia Chase Green told Councillors that the overhaul exercise would be discussed at length and commence at the next statutory meeting slated for January 8, 2018.
The issue of the restructuring of the City Constabulary arose when a report was

tabled requesting monies to pay acting Chief Constable, Superintendent Laurel Gittens, her acting allowance. Gittens would have acted while substantive Chief Constable Andrew Foo was on annual vacation leave in 2016 and 2017, but is yet to be paid her allowance for both instances. In trying to justify the non-payment of Gittens’ allowance, Assistant Town Clerk Sherry Jerrick said that the Council only accepted the report relating Gittens’ allowance in November 2017.
“The recommendation was forwarded to the Legal Affairs and Security Committee

meeting of which it was accepted and, however, that report was deferred by Council and was only accepted at the first meeting of November,” Jerrick explained.
However, Mayor Chase Green was having none of the excuses and bashed Town Clerk Royston King for his inability to have the payments made since he was directly responsible for the administration of the city. Additionally, she then questioned the administration’s failure to fill the vacancy of Deputy Chief Constable since the former Deputy, Steven Bailey, resigned over two years ago.
“There is no Deputy Chief Constable for months and years now, so who carries out the responsibility of the Deputy Chief Constable?” the Mayor questioned. “I don’t

expect this to last until the end of next year. The Deputy Chief Constable has resigned in excess of two years and while I know we have difficulties in the promotions of the City Constabulary, we will have a meeting to have to discuss that (Deputy Chief Constable) promotion alone,” she added.
Nevertheless, Town Clerk King asked that the issue of the City Constabulary be discussed at a special forum since the body ought to be addressed holistically.
“I respectfully ask that this matter be dealt with at another forum. There are a number of implications to all that is going on in the Constabulary…we would also have to get the Legal Affairs and Security Committee involved,” he said. In relation to the payment of Gittens’ acting allowance, King told the Council that the monies were in the process of being paid to the officer and she was expected to receive it before the end of 2017. “I recall during the budget discussion, we did go into the question of the restructuring of the City Constabulary. I know that it will take some time to have this done…I hope that we move to ensure the restructuring of the Constabulary to ensure that we get the best possible performance from the present members of that constabulary,” Councillor Oscar Clarke noted.
Meanwhile, Councillor Sherod Duncan posited that it was gender discrimination, noting that had it been a man then the administration would not have had him waiting for over one year to receive his money. But this was quickly shot down by both the Mayor and King, who noted that the city owed several men large sums of monies for a number of years.
Additionally, there was a call by most of the Councillors to dissolve the statutory meeting into a committee meeting to have Gittens appointed as the Deputy Chief Constable since she executes the duties of that office exceptionally. However, the Mayor informed that the appointment would be made at the next statutory meeting when the overhauling of the City Constabulary begins.
For a number of years, the City Constabulary has been in the spotlight with several instances of Constables assaulting members of the public or executing their duties unprofessionally.
One of the biggest scandals to hit the Constabulary was the sexual assault of a minor in August 2017. The incident allegedly occurred when a 15-year-old boy was taken into custody on August 17 and placed before the court on a charge of wandering. At some point during his detention, for reasons unknown, the minor was transferred to the Regent Street outpost where the alleged incident occurred between August 22 and 23.
Corporal Quacy Baveghems claimed that he witnessed Lance Corporal Clifton Pellew, of the City Constabulary, engaged in a sexual act with a minor, and the matter has been referred to the Police, but charges are yet to be laid.
A report of the city’s Legal Affairs and Security Committee recommended that Chief Constable, Andrew Foo, and ASP Virjanand Gafur – a supervisor of investigations – be sent on 14 days’ leave for serious neglect of duty as it related to their roles in investigating the sexual assault. As it relates to Corporal Baveghems, the Committee found that he failed to record the alleged incident as well as his departure time in the station diary and failed to inform the duty officer of the incident. As a result, the Committee recommended that he be strongly reprimanded while Pellew’s disciplinary actions would depend on the outcome of the Guyana Police Force’s investigations.