By Jomo Paul
Essentially, the leadership of the Force is attempting to debunk the recent findings of a research done by the Latin American Public Opinion Project 2014 National survey of Guyana, which indicated that Guyana has the lowest level of police trust in the region.
The survey revealed that between 2012 and 2014, trust in the police in Guyana decreased by 10 points on a 0 to 100 scale.
Moreover, the results indicated that trust in the police in Guyana has declined among all racial/ethnic groups, but principally among Afro-Guyanese.
But according to Persaud, who was at the time making opening remarks at the annual Police Officer Conference, this is not the case.
He said that contrary to the report, public trust in the Guyana Police Force has improved due to several programs envisioned and implemented by the Force to work closely with the Guyanese citizenry.
He pointed out that most of the projects undertaken by the police were done without a budget but yet the Force is seeing tangible results.
“We know at this time that public trust has been increasing, we have seen tangible evidence of this,” remarked Persaud.
Meanwhile, Police Commissioner Seelall Persaud pointed out that several improvements were achieved by the Police Force last year.
He pointed out too that the police force social crime prevention programme has expanded way beyond Albouystown and Police ‘A’ Division, noting that several communities are now directly involved in the project from each police division.
Further, he boasted of several other accomplishments of the Police Force which includes a notable reduction in the amount of gun related crimes in Guyana.
Persaud highlighted that the website of the Guyana Police Force is fully functional and updated regularly; this was done alongside the attribution of email addresses for each member of the police fraternity.
The Police Commissioner made it clear that the issue of security in the current elections period is paramount and is being treated as such with the involvement of several external agencies.
“This issues is also being addressed at the level of the joint services where international interagency collaboration; at this time is at its highest. We intend to deliver adequate security for the (conduct of elections)”, said Commissioner Persaud.
