President Dr Irfaan Ali had a courtesy visit on Monday from the First Deputy Commissioner of the New York Police Department (NYPD), Tania Kinsella at the New York Marriott Marquis Hotel.
According to the president’s social media page, Kinsella, who has Guyanese heritage, met with Ali to discuss a potential partnership between the Guyana Police Force and the NYPD.
The partnership aims to support the reorganisation and transformation of the GPF through collaboration on the Guyana Police Academy.
“The government is working to have the Academy recognised regionally and internationally. The president stated that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will be established soon to define the terms of the partnership,” the post stated.
Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh during his Budget 2024 presentation on January 15 in the National Assembly, had said that the GPF will embark on major developmental training reform programmes which will enable ranks to receive training in various disciplines offered by renowned policing institutions such as the New York Police Department and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Some $30.3 billion has been allocated in Budget 2024 to the GPF. According to Dr Singh, a sum of $170 million was expended in 2023 towards the training of 1,752 ranks in areas such as gender-based violence and restorative justice, among others. In 2024, he added, the Government plans to further improve the investigative and forensic capabilities of ranks by conducting training both locally and regionally at a budgeted sum of $250 million.
“Mr Speaker, there is a need to fortify the training and human resource capabilities of the GPF to bring its authorised strength in alignment with international standards of policing,” the finance minister had told the National Assembly.
Additionally, a total of $1 billion is proposed to be expended this year to expand the Guyana Police Force’s (GPF) land and water fleet.
He said this would include the purchase of additional vehicles, boats, and engines.
Last year, $900 million was expended to advance procurement of additional motorcycles, pick-ups, boats, motorcars, and trucks for the GPF.
In totality, $30.3 billion was allotted to the Police Force in Budget 2024.
Of that sum, some $5.4 billion is earmarked to advance infrastructure works such as the construction, rehabilitation and maintenance of a number of police stations countrywide.
This includes the reconstruction of police stations at Mahaicony, Kitty, Sans Souci and Weldaad as well as the construction of Regional Police Headquarters in Regions Six and Seven.
Meanwhile, a sum of $152.1 million was set aside to support to expansion of the community policing initiative across the country.
