Fatal police shooting highlights need for Force to be equipped, trained in use of less-lethal weapons

Dear Editor,

The fatal shooting of Roger Erwyn Pierre and Terrence Williams by a member of the Guyana Police Force at Mahaicony, East Coast Demerara highlights the need for the members of the force to be equipped and trained in the use of less-lethal weapons.

It is evident that if members of the force were so equipped and adequately trained this tragic incident could have been avoided.

The Home Affairs Minister, Robeson Benn, successfully tabled a bill in the National Assembly in December 2021 for the amendment of the relevant law to empower members of the Guyana Police Force to carry and use less-lethal weapons.

Despite this amendment, the evidence is clear that more than three years after members of the Guyana Police force have not been equipped with those kinds of weapons resulting in them resorting to the use of lethal force (guns) in situations where less-lethal weapons could and should have been employed.

Below is an extract from Stabroek News of December 14, 2021:

The amended bill, once enacted, would empower the members of the Guyana Police Force to carry less-lethal weapons in the execution of their duties. Such weapons are defined to include: (a) nightsticks, batons and clubs; (b) chemical irritants, including a pepper spray and tear gas; (c) conducted electrical weapons, including a taser or stun gun; (d) kinetic impact projectiles, including rubber bullets; or (e) a water cannon.

According to the Explanatory Memorandum for the bill, “The purpose of this amendment is to … provide the type of less-lethal weapons that may be issued to the Police Force for use in discharge of their functions under the Act. The use of arms facilitates less-lethal confrontational measures by law enforcement officers in an effort to reduce fatalities.”

Benn, in his address to the House, stressed that it was important that the police force be equipped with tools that will enable ranks to execute their jobs without excessive or deadly force.

He acknowledged instances where scuffles between agitated civilians and lawmen led to the use of lethal force to quell the situation just because the civilian was resisting arrest.

With such situations in mind, Benn said, “We want to avoid the result of having to go to the use of firearms. We want to be able to go through a staged response in respect of the use of force by our police.”

 “I think each one of us should welcome our ability to move in a stage towards a position where we can bring calm to a situation, where we can have arrests which are less tendentious…” he further said. “I think everyone should take the position that these amendments were long in coming, and should be properly placed in the Police Act so that any resort which should have been made would be properly identified in law,” he added.

It is my view that it is a clear case of incompetence that over three years since the passage of this important amendment to the law the Guyana Police Force still unnecessarily and even recklessly employs lethal force as a first resort.

Who is to be blamed? Who will be made to answer for the tragic death of those two men and others killed in similar circumstances?

Condolences to the relatives of the deceased persons.

Yours truly,
Paul Slowe, CCH, DSM,
Assistant Commissioner of Police (Ret’d)
Former Chairman of the Police Service Commission.