Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Mohabir Anil Nandlall, SC told officers of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) they should never hesitate to respond to reports of domestic violence. He was speaking during the Gender-Based Violence (GBV) medical symposium held on Sunday.
The AG told those in attendance complaints of domestic violence are not private and that they cannot get involved. That’s completely wrong, he said.
Nandlall said the Force benefitted from training programmes, specifically aimed at educating officers on the Domestic Violence Act.
According to the minister the government will be establishing special measures to address this social ill.
“The police have to create units within each police station to deal with domestic violence. We have begun to do this administratively…The reports have to be specially prepared and documented in a particular way,” the attorney general noted.
Each police station must also have an assigned vehicle to swiftly respond to domestic violence complaints.
Nandlall added that he has engaged the Commissioner of Police to initiate lectures for officers in each division to familiarise them with the Family Violence Act of 2024 recently passed in the National Assembly.
This step is crucial as officers are responsible for operationalising and enforcing the law within society.
The symposium, organised by the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security, took place at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC), Liliendaal.
In 2021, the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security launched the Cop Squad 2000 Initiative, to further combat this devastating issue.
The initiative aims to train at least 50 per cent of officers within the GPF on how to handle domestic violence cases.
With these measures in place, government said it remains determined to minimise domestic violence and will continue to uphold a zero-tolerance approach towards police officers’ lackadaisical response to such cases.
