‘‘Ring fencing’’ for GPF assets to clamp down on misuse

…technology, operational mapping essential to ensure accountability – Pres Ali

With heavy investments being made to adequately equip the Guyana Police Force (GPF) with the resources needed to effectively and efficiently carry out its duties, the Guyana Government is clamping down on the misuse of these assets.
This is according to President Dr Irfaan Ali during his address at the opening of the GPF’s Annual Officers Conference last Wednesday. In 2025, some $2 billion has been earmarked to upgrade the Force’s transportation fleet.
But the Head of State explained that in doing these upgrades, efforts will also be taken to ensure that the GPF’s assets are used only for operational purposes and warned that officers will be held accountable.
“We’re going to be investing in a system, a system that will ring fence our assets, so that our assets cannot go on other rides except operational rides. That’s important because we have to safeguard the assets. We will have GPS mapping and tracking of our assets so that we will know when we invest $2 billion in our assets and the public calls, and we know we have five vehicles within five minutes of where that call is coming from [but] none of the assets move [then] we will know where they were, what they were doing, and then we’ll have to hold people accountable as to why they did not respond.”

Digitisation and technology
“So, that is the type of investment we are making, putting the technology into the asset, because people must be held accountable for actions. We cannot invest and do not have that level of accountability to support the investment in giving us the best possible results. So, that’s another important investment that we’ll be making,” President Ali revealed.
With efforts underway for the digitisation of the Police Force, the Guyanese Leader emphasised the need for technology to be used to allow greater accountability and traceability – the latter, he said, not being given a lot of attention, though it can play a crucial role in monitoring performances.
“[We] speak about technology and digitisation, but what the technology and digitisation allow us to do is to evaluate performances, to evaluate weaknesses, to evaluate strengths so that we will know who erred or who did not fulfil their duties. So, traceability is an important part of the technological platform that we’re building in our modern policing system,” the president stated.

Moreover, the GPF has been strengthening the various regional policing divisions across the country, equipping them with the necessary resources by increasing assets and bolstering their human resource capacity through training, as well as creating spaces for specialised services such as the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) and the Tactical Services Unit (TSU) in every region.
According to President Ali, these efforts are supported by community police outposts being established across the country to enhance the Force’s response mechanism in an integrated way. “So, you’ll have major assets in the region, but then you’ll have these small community outposts with a quick response and allows for agility and mobility and nimbleness that is critical in the Guyana Police Force,” he noted.

Operational mapping
During his address at the recently concluded GPF’s Conference, the Head of State also instructed each of the Regional Police Divisions to create a colour-coded map of their respective districts, to highlight important operational details like high-risk areas for crime, and a detailed plan on how to address it.
These operational maps, he explained, will help to guide the allocation of resources to areas where they are needed.
“So, all of these things must be mapped… [and by] the end of this annual Officers Conference, we want to see every division coming out with an operational map, identifying each asset, identifying every risk area, and telling us what strategy will be developed for each of these risk areas, which are high risk areas.”
“I already told the Commissioner of Police [Clifton Hicken], I want a colour code of every single Regional Division, and a colour code of every single NDC [Neighbourhood Democratic Council] from high risk to the lowest risk. So, we will know how to deploy assets, how to deploy human assets and physical assets. That is what is going to help us. We have to identify all the public institutions, the schools, within every NDC. So, the map that will be completed at the end of this annual Officers Conference will give us a holistic approach as to how we want to address the entire ecosystem of policing and crime fighting… The different Division Commanders…have the capability so, there is no excuse in getting this done…,” the Guyanese Leader posited.
Between 2020 and 2024, the Guyana Police Force has acquired some 557 vehicles – an investment of a whopping $2.3 billion. These include motorcycles, pick-ups, minibuses, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), motorcars, trucks, boats, etc., tailored for both urban and remote areas.