U-turn: Ramjattan now admits CPGs are important

… 2 years after taking away resources

After taking away the vehicles from the Community Policing Groups (CPGs) back in 2015 and hand them over to the Guyana Police Force, Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan has stated that several of those resources have since been returned to the CPG.

Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan and Head of the Community Policing Organisation of Guyana, Denis Pompey, along with other CPG officials at the press conference on Wednesday

In fact, at a press conference on Wednesday to mark the 41st anniversary of the Community Policing Organisation of Guyana, the Minister outlined the importance of CPGs, adding that his Ministry during the course of last year took steps to further enhance the assets of the Organisation.
“As you know, when I came into the administration, a lot of the vehicles for the CPG were given to the Police because the Police was in a problem. We’ve gotten a couple back from the Police but not all,” he stated.
Moreover Ramjattan pointed out that having recognised the important role of CPGs, his Ministry has been expending resources to have the members trained in specific areas to be able to better identify and tackle certain situations within their communities, since they are usually the first responders in the event of any criminal activities.
Over the years, he added, Community Policing Group members were exposed to training in policing; domestic and gender-based violence; Trafficking In Persons (TIP); conflict and anger management; interpersonal violence; fire and road safety; First Aid; suicide awareness and more recently, noise nuisance.
Ramjattan has now admitted that “it is monies, in my view at this stage, well spent but of course we can do better by virtue of training so that the CPG members can have a better capacity and quality in seeking out information and transferring it… and also becoming leaders in the communities as to how they can secure themselves from the variety of crimes that occur and the variety of wrongdoings that occur. That is why, at this stage, more training is going to happen with the CPGs so that they too can lessen (criminal activities).”
In addition to boosting the resource and capability of the Organisation, Minister Ramjattan pointed out that “more aggressive” efforts need to be taken to encourage citizens to join the CPG membership to aid in reducing crime within their communities. He underscored that CPGs are an important supplement to the Police Force, having eyes and ears on the ground within communities and are able to pass certain information on to the Police to assist in enforcement efforts.
“Those who are committing domestic violence, those who beat up their wives or their spouses, those who would have a tendency of wanting to kill them and put them in some grave at the backyard and grow bora – the community generally knows and they if they could be the eyes and ears that could give that preliminary detection work, we in the Police Force and other enforcement agencies, can be better equipped because we are more informed as to what is happening on the ground.
So it is vital that more and more people all across the communities of Guyana join up so that they could be this supplementary, this complementary force to the Guyana Police Force and other agencies,” Ramjattan outlined.
The membership of Community Policing Organisation of Guyana currently consists of 166 groups with a membership of 4347, almost the same as the 4500 compliment of the Guyana Police Force.
During its operations in 2016, CPGs conducted vehicular, motor cycle, bicycle, foot, boat patrols and ATV patrols, amounting to some 30,000 patrols. Additionally, CPG members were able to make some 89 arrests ranging from murders to domestic violence.
This year’s anniversary, which is being observed under the theme: “Celebrating 41 years of partnership; supporting reform and development”, commenced on April 1 with an Interfaith Service at Tagore Secondary School in Corentyne, Berbice, and will conclude on May 27 with a women’s conference. This year’s main celebratory events will be held in the ancient county.