The Guyana Police Force is now to be formally known as the Guyana Police Service.
This change had been recommended for many years and was instituted at the first meeting today of the Police Reform Change Board (PRCB). The change is meant to emphasise the service orientation of the police as opposed to the term `force’.
A statement from the Ministry of Public Security said that the first meeting of the PRCB was today chaired by Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan in the Ministry’s Boardroom. The statement said that the Commissioner of Police and the complete Executive Leadership Team of the Police was present along with Dr Clement Henry, Project Manager of the Citizen Security Strengthening Programme (CSSP). Also taking part were the UK Security Adviser to the President, Colonel Russell Combe, and the Minister’s personal assistant Dianna Rajcumar.
The PRCB arose from the reform work conducted under a CSSP consultancy by international consultants with many years of experience working with the Guyana Police Force, who proposed the need for a Ministry forum for managing Police reform.
The statement said that the main agenda item at the PRCB meeting was to agree to the proposed Terms of Reference for the Board.
“This includes providing strategic direction, monitoring, guidance and support to the Police in order to implement the reform programme. The PRCB will also review the progress being made by the Police with the various reform activities under way. It will also have oversight of all the strands of Police reform activities, which can then be coordinated, measured and evaluated”, the statement added.
The statement noted that this is not the start of reform but that the process has been ongoing for some time by the Police themselves, the CSSP and through the work by the UK Security Adviser as well as the locally initiated reform coming out of the GPF.
This first meeting of the PRCB is another important step in the reform process, the statement said. The statement added that it also highlights the Commissioner of Police achieving his promise to make meaningful progress in Police reform by the end of March 2019.
