Getting quick help from Turkeyen police station a big challenge

Seeking help from the police at the relatively new Turkeyen Police Station is not an easy thing as two members of the public recently found out.

Attempts by this newspaper to get a comment from the commander of Division ‘C’, Balram Persaud on this situation proved futile.

When Stabroek News visited the station on Thursday October 30, Shawndel Anderson sat on a bench in the waiting area of the police station waiting to speak to the station sergeant about her 14-year-old son who had been incarcerated.

She finally met him on October 30 after going to the station every morning and afternoon since October 28, when her son was taken into custody for alleged break and enter. Anderson was told everyday she visited that the sergeant was not in but to check the following day.

On the night of October 25, Trevolta Peters was stabbed at a barbecue at a Sophia location. His wife Samantha Cornette made a report to the said station minutes after the incident occurred.

However, a police officer only went to the hospital four days later to take a statement from the injured man. Cornette along with one of Peters’s friends told Stabroek News that they had visited the station on several occasions in a bid to get the police involved in the matter. But they were faced with a string of excuses, the dominant one being there is only one rank on duty and he cannot leave the station. This was told to Cornette when she made the report after 9 o’clock on the night of the incident. Cornette emphasized that on every occasion she visited the station she only saw one rank there.

Stabroek News visited the police station on Thursday. While this newspaper was there only one plain clothes female rank was present, although a police pick-up was parked in the compound, along with a police motorcycle. Persons who visited the station to report matters or seek help with situations, told Stabroek News that they were told to return at other times. Stabroek News has learnt that the presence of one police officer on duty is a norm — even at nights — in a neighbourhood that is not easiest.

This newspaper had previously published stories where Sophia residents had voiced their concerns; questioning the purpose of the Turkeyen Police Station. This opinion has been voiced after calls to that station in the middle of a riveting chase of two armed men, went unanswered. On that occasion in April 2007, bandit William Forde was shot and killed by ranks that had to come from the East La Penitence police station, where a resident had gone for help, after getting none at Turkeyen. In more recent times residents have complained about the lack of response from the police station.
The Turkeyen Police Sta-tion was completed in September 2006 with the intention to provide security service for Turkeyen and Sections A-E in Sophia. The station was commissioned by Minister of Home Affairs, Clement Rohee who said that it would fall under Division C of the Guyana Police Force.

The $42M two-storey facility consists of male and female barrack rooms, offi-ces, a traffic complaints division, Criminal Investigation Registry, lock ups, and interrogation rooms, among other departments.

Acting Commissioner of Police Henry Greene had said at its opening that the station should permit greater cooperation between residents and the police and had urged residents to bring to the attention of the higher ranks of the force, any issue of non-cooperation and slow responses by the police stationed there.