By Leroy Smith
[www.inewsguyana.com] – Residents on the East Bank of Essequibo and West Bank of Demerara should have safer communities with the implementation of the Guyana Police Force’s D Division C-PETS program which was launched on Thursday afternoon [July 10] at the Tuschen Car Park, East Bank Essequibo.
Creating Positive Environments through Safer Communities and Partnerships (C-PETS ) is an initiative of Ian Amsterdam, the Commander of D Division as part of the strategic plan for his division on how to get community involvement and partnership with the police and its activities.
The initiative will see the building of partnerships with the stakeholders and building cohesion between the faith-based organisations in the various districts within the division.
In his power-point presentation, Commander Amsterdam said that the vision of the project is to share the burden of the policing through partnerships with the development of safer communities.
The initiative will promote trust, empower citizens to develop a sense of personal security and to remove the social ills from their communities.
The overall objective he added is to reduce crime and fear of crime within the communities in the division and enhance community safety and security while reducing the incidents of domestic violence while empowering the youths.
According to Amsterdam, C-PETS also aim to reduce drugs and alcohol abuse among citizens and promote sports, culture and entertainment and healthy lifestyle awareness.
Meanwhile, Commissioner of Police Seelall Persaud said that the Administration of the Force has been changed to ensure that the police are involved in something else rather than law enforcement and its recruitment drive.
Commissioner Persaud said that Crime is a social problem and as such requires social solutions to deal with the ills. He added that while law enforcement goes a far way in dealing with the social ills of society, it cannot complete the job hence the need for partnerships and working along with the communities.
