Job satisfaction is key to Force membership
--- police officer tells DFC
by Shirwin Campbell
Guyana Chronicle
October 7, 2003
For a brief moment Commissioners of the Disciplined Forces Commission got a sneak preview of life in the Guyana Police Force through the eyes of a senior police officer.
Superintendent Balram Persaud, who is President of the Police Officers' Association, pointed out that the failure of the Force to attract a significant number of recruits and keep them in the system is directly linked to the poor working conditions the ranks operate under.
Supt. Persaud spoke of poor housing accommodations and lack of basic amenities - a refrigerator, television set, stove, bed and dining suite. Noting that he personally experienced this problem while spending a year in Lethem, he added that in some cases family members would accompany them and if the ranks are not comfortable it will deter their peers and recruits from joining the force. Job satisfaction, he said, is key to the Force attracting and retaining new members.
Another reason for the trickle of recruits Supt. Persaud identified was the realization that they cannot automatically be attached to the department of their choice.
He explained that recruits join with the intention of functioning in the traffic department, Criminal Investigations Department (CID) or Immigration, but instead are sent to IMPACT or transferred in the interior.
The transferring of ranks after training to a location far from home is also a contributory factor.
The majority of recruits leave the force when they are transferred; others resign after only a few initial sessions with their instructors.
While acknowledging that they should not be placed in their home community, Supt. Persaud recommended that recruits be deployed in close proximity to where they can see their family regularly.
Transferring also posed another challenge for policemen, namely using their salary to support two homes - where they are posted and their family back home.
The Guyana Police Force is woefully short of staff and it is severely affecting the police in the execution of their duties, because work-overload places ranks under strain.
He also called for full medical benefits, including life insurance, and a pension plan outside of the NIS, for police ranks.
Supt. Persaud also asked the commission that the original way of appointing the Commissioner and Deputies be reverted to, thus allowing the President, Opposition Leader and the head of the Police Service Commission to appoint the Commissioner, with his Deputies being appointed by the Police Service Commission.
Touching on the distribution of firearms, he called for the regulations to be adhered to in relation the granting of the license.
The senior police officer said that a Policeman should not be made to spend the last three years of his tenure in the service at a Police Station in the area he resides, so that he can bond with the community for a smoother adjustment when he retires.
Supt. Persaud also called for a change in the regulations that prevent police officers and members of their family from establishing businesses unless so approved by the Commissioner of Police, since the salary is inadequate for the average officer to effectively manage his or her home.
He called for a work schedule to be established so that ranks can effectively balance their time, noting that it would remove the added strain on the Commissioner who can be deemed biased in this regard.
Retirement should be a voluntary act following twenty years of service or when the age 40 is attained, he added.