Police Force to raise entry standards for new recruits

…recruits with only primary education to be a “thing of the past”

As the Guyana Police Force (GPF) continues its efforts to lift its standards of policing, Acting Commissioner of Police, Nigel Hoppie, and Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn are unified on the importance of raising the entry requirements for Police recruits.

On Saturday, the Guyana Police Force held its inaugural Integrity in Policing symposium at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, and Hoppie used that opportunity to link the entry requirements of the Force with the quality of Police recruits. Additionally, Hoppie spoke of the impact COVID has had on training within the Force.
“The present entry requirement is a sound primary education. This should be reviewed to a higher level…(the) COVID-19 pandemic has led to the curtailing or restricting of available training, which has affected skill and competency development. It has also affected the recruitment drive,” Hoppie disclosed.
Minister Benn also spoke of raising the entry requirements, agreeing with Hoppie when it was his turn to address the officers. He noted that the requirement of a “sound primary education” was on its own not good enough.
“As the Commissioner of Police would have just mentioned, a sound primary education itself is not necessarily the best measure for joining the Police Force, but it might be more a question of a sound secondary education,” he offered.
“And I’m aware that some people are even coming with degrees to join the Police Force, but I’m aware there are some barriers that we have to look at in relation to bringing in new people,” the Minister also said.
When this publication asked the Minister when this would become a reality, Minister Benn promised that this would be done “soon.” He was also of the view that increasing the requirements would not impact the number of recruits the Force gets.
“I don’t think it will impact the question of how many new recruits we will get. There are thousands of people who apply, both to come in the Police, Fire and Prison service. The question relates to one, I think we’ll move to a sound secondary education,
or passing particular tests, performance test or written tests, to get into the Force soon… There’s a COVID environment and so on. The discussion is underway to put it into schedules, but it will happen soon,” Benn said.
There are over 3000 ranks in the Guyana Police Force, with an average of 3000 applicants per year. At present, the Force has a backlog of applications exacerbated by the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite the need for additional Police ranks in particular areas throughout the length and breadth of Guyana to help fight crime, the Guyana Police Force has revealed that only a total of 270 applications can be accepted within a six-month period.
This was disclosed by the GPF’s Training Officer, Superintendent Shivpersaud Bacchus, during the Force’s weekly radio programme “Police & You”. Owing to this, the Superintendent noted that persons who had applied in the past two years would subsequently be on said waiting list, since applications from as far back as 2015 would gain first preference, given the time lapse.
However, when asked about the resumption of physical training, he stated that the Force was eagerly awaiting the go-ahead to proceed, and when that is given, information in regard to such would be advertised to the general public.
Concerning a question posed by a caller as to why the Force had a large number of applications, the Superintendent noted that job security was the main reason for this. (G3)