Police commissioner must address growing epidemic in GPF

Dear Editor,
I was elated when our Commissioner of Police (ag), Mr David Ramnarine, announced that his detectives have solved 77% of the murders, or 88 cases out of 116. He further stated that there was an 11% decrease in serious crimes, such as robbery-under-arms and murder.
However, he admitted there was a 25% increase in robbery-with-violence and robbery-with-aggravation. There was also a marked increase in carjackings, which he categorised as ‘alarming’.
This increase in robbery must have prompted the US Government to issue an advisory, on January 10th, 2018, to its citizens travelling to Guyana to exercise caution. The advisory further stated that “local police lack the resources to effectively respond to serious criminal incidents”. Unfortunately, we have been classified in the same category as Jamaica.
My point of contention is: While Mr Ramnarine congratulated his detectives, he failed to acknowledge the vital inputs from civil society, and in some cases from relatives of the victims themselves.
For instance, in the Marcus Bisram case, it was a member of civil society who insisted that the death of the carpenter was murder, after being given information by the relatives of the murdered man. The matter was initially treated as an accident after millions were allegedly thrown at some ranks of the Police Force.
This case is similar to the case of the man who allegedly murdered his wife and buried her under some bora beds. And yet another similar case is that of the young man who was murdered, and his body burnt in a hole behind the suspects’ house. The mother and brother of the deceased man had to do their own digging and unearthing of the evidence that the body was that of their loved one, and that he was murdered. The police did not investigate this, even though the relatives of the murdered man had initially given this information to the Police.
In many cases, the Police actually ‘slept’ on the information fed to them, or were paid to turn a blind eye. It is my fact-based opinion that many more murders would have been solved if the Police had the ‘will’ to solve them, and were not so ready to accept bribes. They do have the capacity. This is what you should investigate, Mr Commissioner.
This obvious lethargy and inertia seems to be getting worse, since the Police stations are now given free Wi-Fi service.
When one enters the police station, regardless of time, many ranks can be seen with their heads buried in their cellphones, rudely hesitant to even look at the complainant. Many times, the public has to wait until the ranks have mustered enough will power to move away from the chats engaged in, or the movies they were watching.
Why should the Police have their cell phones on when they are on duty in the station? They have the landlines and the radio handsets which should be used for communication purposes. I am calling on the Commissioner to address this growing epidemic, which is marring the efficiency and effectiveness of the GPF.
Currently, there are two serious issues in Region 6 which need to be addressed, and despite numerous letters to the media, the Commissioner of Police has chosen not to intervene. These have to do with vehicles ‘parked’ on both sides of the Corentyne Highway, and the ever-growing noise nuisance from the mobile vendors and advertisers. I do feel that the Commissioner, Mr Ramnarine, does have the ability to drastically change the current inefficient and ineffective modus operandi of the GPF, since he has shown that capacity; but he needs to delve deeper into the ‘white-washed’ reports from the heads of the various regions, and make some impromptu visits to these regions.

Yours sincerely,
Muhammad Mustapha