Police training compact inked with UK Intelligence gathering to be key component Stabroek News May 19, 2000 A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for training at various levels in the Police Force was signed yesterday between Guyana and the United Kingdom and it should see a honing of intelligence gathering and investigative capacities. The training will be carried out locally and in the United Kingdom and is part of a programme initiated to review the organisation and structure of the Police Force. The programme, according to British High Commissioner, Edward Glover, who signed the agreement on behalf of his government at the Ministry of Home Affairs, forms part of the British Government-funded project to review the justice system. He observed that the administration of justice must be law based and respect the rights of all. He said that the police had a role to play in this regard since a society was judged by the way its police force operated. Glover said too that each society should seek to achieve fair treatment for all those who come into contact with the justice system. He stressed that the programme was one of partnership, cooperation and the exchange of information and recalled that the UK's Caribbean Police Adviser had remarked that the force's community policing policy had a great deal it could offer to other Caribbean countries. Speaking before signing the MOU, Home Affairs Minister, Ronald Gajraj said that the training assistance was the initial step in a process which would include a review of the structure and reform of the police force. The training programme, he said, would be a fillip for the force, a morale booster for its ranks and would redound to the benefit of the Guyanese people as the results of the training were felt. Gajraj said he was not in a position to say at this time how many officers would be trained, but whatever the amount of money available he would ensure that as many ranks as possible were exposed to training without compromising the force's quality and professionalism. He said that the training would be targeted at key points in the force. About the areas of the force to be reviewed, Gajraj said that this would include the Public Relations and Criminal Investigation departments, its intelligence gathering operations, the forensics branch as well as the upper echelons of the force to enhance their operational and administrative skills. He said too, that community policing which had been praised by the UK's Caribbean Police Adviser was also an area to which training would be targeted to further improve its operations. Glover said that because the training would be focused and targeted, a balance would be struck between the training done locally and overseas. And because of the "cascade effect", he said, that a substantial number of persons would be trained by those who had been exposed to the training. Commenting on the Police Complaints Authority, which he said could be encompassed in the review, Gajraj observed that because that body had not been operating as expected, the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) had to undertake a number of its functions. He said that despite the perception of the police investigating its own, the OPR had brought before the courts a number of police officers who had transgressed the law as well as provided for others to be disciplined departmentally. Yesterday's signing ceremony was witnessed by Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ronald Williams; Commissioner of Police (ag), Floyd McDonald; Second Secretary (Development) at the British High Commission, Jim Brady and some members of the staff of Gajraj's ministry.