Home Affairs Minister Oneidge Walrond has noted declining public confidence in the Guyana Police Force (GPF), underscoring a firm zero-tolerance approach to misconduct among officers. She made the remarks whilst delivering an address during the GPF’s Christmas Awards Ceremony on Friday. “We must confront an uncomfortable truth,” she said. “Public trust is fragile. One act of misconduct can undo months of hard work,” the Minister admitted.
While she acknowledged that there are many honest and hard-working officers within the GPF, Walrond noted that “we have seen incidents where individual malpractice cast a shadow over the institution”.
Against this backdrop, the Minister made it clear that “there will be zero tolerance for malpractice, abuse of authority or any behaviour that dishonours this uni-form.”
She noted that every officer must commit to the highest standards of integrity, accountability and service. “The people of Guyana deserve nothing less.”
Commissioner of Police Clifton Hicken, in his remarks at the ceremony, revealed that for the year, 20 police officers have been criminally charged and placed be-fore the courts. Just recently, a Police Constable from Region One (Barima-Waini) was remanded to prison after he was caught on video brandishing and indiscrimi-nately firing an AK-47 in public while threatening to shoot civilians.
The video, which was released on various social media platforms, showed the cop in a drunken state, dressed in civilian attire, threatening to shoot civilians.
Also on Friday, Police Commissioner Clifton Hicken confirmed that Hicken said that for the year 2025, 20 cops have been charged for various offences and are currently before the court. In November Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum had said that among the offences that police ranks who are currently before the courts are charged for were murder, rape, robbery under arms and robbery with aggrava-tion.
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