Police to utilise rivers in developing rapid response – Pres Ali

…says 4 boats procured for marine operations

Guyana is now focused on utilising its rivers to enhance rapid response by the Guyana Police Force (GPF), with investments in resources and building capacity to support this new approach.

President Dr Irfaan Ali shared during a recent address at the Annual Police Officers’ Conference that policing must match the country’s landscape. In Guyana’s case, its expansive rivers will prove useful in setting up a robust river patrol and transportation system for law enforcement.
“We have worked with the Police Force and matching assets with the landscape. So, for example, we have all the rivers. We are known as a Land of Many Waters. We are known for the expansive rivers that cover our coastlands, but we have never utilised this asset to support policing. So, one of the things that is being done now, is the response now, is we are building a river response capacity and capability,” Ali remarked.
The Commander-In-Chief shared that there would be bases along the coast to support this marine response. Thus far, four boats have been sourced to expand this operation – two of which have arrived.
“If you have to go through the traffic from Stabroek to Diamond, the marine response will be half the time or less the time to establish, a presence anywhere along the coast. So, we have about four boats…Those will now form part of the coastal patrol team. So, all of this would add to reducing the time of response, and you will see also with them, because security is integrated and intelligence-led, so all the players in the security landscape must be able to share on a platform. And that is an important part of what we are doing,” he explained.
Two months ago, British warship HMS Trent entered Guyana’s waters, in its effort to carry out routine defence cooperation exercises with the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and Coast Guard.
The ship, a river-class patrol vessel, was in Guyana to take part in joint exercises with Guyana’s military as the country sought to bolster its internal security.
Then in February, it was announced that capacity to monitor our maritime borders would see another boost with the brand-new Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV), built by United States-based Metal Shark Boats for the GDF.
This acquisition was part of efforts to modernise and expand the Army to meet future defence and security needs – a huge aspect of which is to boost its assets. GDF ranks have been undergoing training over the past three years on operating the OPV.
In August last year, President Ali said that the vessel being procured from Metal Shark would also help Guyana in patrolling its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) against illegal fishing. He pointed out that Guyana has been losing significant revenue from illegal fishing in its EEZ, a problem that is being dealt with through the modernisation and outfitting of the GDF with a wide range of marine and aviation equipment.