Community Policing Groups (CPGs) are better trained and have more resources to offer support to the police, Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee says.

However, he also said that groups must apply more modern techniques in order to deal with the changing nature of crime.

A Government Informa-tion Agency (GINA) press release said the minister made these comments at the annual meeting for E&F divisions CPGs held at the Linmine Constabulary in Linden. Rohee said after 32 years the CPGs are better off in terms of technology and from his brief experience as minister of home affairs CPGs have come a far way.

As regard the killings at Lusignan and Bartica Rohee said, “We have to learn from these deficiencies and the key lessons are that in every community there must be a CPG to help the Police by providing them with local intelligence.” He also said that the CPGs have to be constantly functioning and that rural constables must also have their precepts and training.

The meeting also elected a chairman, vice chairman, secretary and treasurer. GINA said there are over 200 CPGs with over 3,000 members spanning the ten regions.