Pres Ali unveils 7-Point “HITLIST” to strengthen Caribbean policing

As security officials from across the Caribbean gather in Guyana for a five-day conference on enhancing regional policing, the country’s Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, President Dr Irfaan Ali, has unveiled a 7-point plan aimed at strengthening collaboration and resource-sharing to tackle common criminal issues.
The announcement was made during the opening ceremony of the 39th Annual General Meeting and Conference of the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police, held at the at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC).
President Ali’s plan focuses on several key areas: Human Capital Development, Infrastructure Enhancement, Advanced Training Programmes, Technology Development, among others.
“I came up with the acronym HITLIST to identify some things that we should examine in this conference, and some things that we can help with here in Guyana. The first letter—H, human capital. We must agree that we have a human capital challenge in the region. Much of policing and quality policing is developed on the job, based on the investment that we are making in our recruits throughout their career. Historically, we have to face the realities.”
The Head of State then posited that policing would not have been the first choice of many individuals within the armed forces, and thus, the region at large must be grateful to those who entered and remained in these careers.
To top it off, he further stated that the region must consider how it creates an environment to attract good human capital, retain good human capital, and invest in that human capital to give it an opportunity to grow—given the various challenges that the region has.
“This must be done because the human capital in the police force needs housing, they need a work environment that is respectful, they need training, they need educational opportunities. We can’t just have the command structure of the past, where a constable will come in and maybe retire as a constable or a sergeant. Or that constable comes in and we don’t expect them to pursue educational opportunities,” the Head of State mentioned.
He also highlighted how times are changing rapidly and Guyana’s policing structure would have to be re-examined. He noted that it is better if Guyana has a higher level of training at every level of the system—and that high-ranking officials remain true to core policing values.

“So with online training and all of this, we will have constables who may have degrees and master’s at the level of the constable. How do we now reassess this human capital and integrate that skill set in policing, although they are at the level of the constable? It’s a very important question. Because here in Guyana, in the last four years, hundreds of our ranks now have diplomas, degrees, master’s, PhDs—some are lawyers. How do we harness all of this talent to ensure that we make the best use of the human capital?”
He then highlighted the second letter “I,” which stood for infrastructure. He explained that Guyana should focus on collaborative development.
“The second one is infrastructure… we’re investing in infrastructure. But we are so small individually that it makes no sense for all of us to have the most advanced forensic lab, for example. So here in Guyana, we want to build an infrastructure to support regional security.”

The third letter, ‘T,’ was highlighted, in which he mentioned that there must be improvements in the area of technology.
“If we are going to integrate the work that we are doing, all of us may be operating on different technology platforms, which may make it difficult to share information across borders. And if we are truly moving towards a borderless region, then we have to have some discussion on the technology that we are using. And here again, we’re investing in a series of technologies to help crime fighting that we want to deploy regionally. One of the important subjects is data sovereignty.”
President Ali also spoke about the need to improve the security infrastructure in the region, as well as upgrading legislation. Intelligence gathering and sharing is another critical element, he emphasised.
This is the exact reason why the CARICOM Heads, he stated, have tasked their Attorneys General (AG) and the Legal Affairs Committee to review a series of legislation as it relates to crime fighting and creating a safer region—and to find ways in which the region can integrate legislation so that it allows for the seamless application of the law.
The second “I” in the acronym HITLIST focused on intelligence—intelligence gathering and intelligence building.
“S” stood for systems themselves. He mentioned that one of the reasons why the public expresses trust is because of the level of human impact in the region. Therefore, these systems must change to have humans as the backbone, and technology as the framework.
“How integrated is our intelligence service? And this is not only at the national level but at the policing level. Do we have a strategy on how we’re going to build out our intelligence framework? Are we going to have intelligence as a bedrock in driving our agenda and action from a regional perspective?”
The last letter “T” He stated is the letter T that the region must consider how integrated its Technological intelligence system is—not only at the national level but also at the policing level.