Open letter to President Ali- “You must act now”

Dear Editor,

This is an open letter to our Head of State, President Irfaan Ali. For sometime now, law abiding citizens has openly and privately complained about the behaviour of members of the Guyana Police Force. They have complained of crudeness and arrogance displayed by senior and junior members of the Guyana Police Force.

In any truly democratic society, with all that has happened and is happening, any Head of State should not await any inquiry of any sort, but by now, would have sent the Top Cop and  a number of his senior officers off. A recent letter written by Paul Slowe, (Ret’d) Asst. Commissioner painfully refers to the many breaches and disregard for standard operational procedures by our Police.

The greater tragedy is that fortunately there still exist some senior officers and ordinary ranks who are professionally driven but must exist in an environment where sections of our population have already lost confidence and any sort of trust in the Police Force.

Mr. President, apart from the well known mis-steps of the police, your pre and post budget boasted how much resources have been directed to the Guyana Police Force, vehicles and the latest extravaganza, body cameras. Yet, the majority of police stations and outposts claim that they have no vehicles to respond to requests from the public, not to mention, the non functioning of telephone lines at Police Stations.

Mr. President, you must act now. We are fed up with platitudes and promises.

Yours truly,

Hamilton Green

Elder