Acting Police Commissioner Leroy Brumell yesterday urged police ranks to avoid corrupt practices.
“You don’t want yourself to get involved or be dragged into corrupt business because out there it is very tempting. I want to urge you not to be [tempted]. It is not nice, especially when the police have to be charged, placed before the court and be remanded,” Brumell said during his address to those in attendance at the police force’s Annual Award Ceremony, where ranks were rewarded for good service during the year.
He noted that hard work is afoot to make the force a better one and to put the ranks in a good light as it relates to dealing with crime and the traffic situation. “We alone cannot do it,” he added, while stressing that stakeholders, including the private sector, the Guyana Association of Private Security Organisations, and Community Policing Groups, are all on board to help in this regard.
He said that crime has been suppressed but areas such as murders still have to be looked at. For this year so far, there has been 128 murders against 125 for the same period last year. “That means we have gone ahead and that is quite worrying. The amount of murders we are having, quite worrying. Some of them are for minimal things,” he said.
Brumell also used the occasion to urge ranks to be cautious in their conduct while in public. “We are the servants of the country. We must not behave as though we own the people out there,” he said, while emphasizing the need for all ranks to be professional.
