| Eleven years after it first initiated a Special Weapons And Tactics (SWAT) unit, the Guyana Police Force is expected to soon establish such a unit. This follows the announcement yesterday by the Ministry of Home Affairs that Cabinet has approved the establishment of a SWAT Unit for the Guyana Police Force.This initiative is aimed at strengthening the Force’s law enforcement capabilities.“With a SWAT Unit,NFL Jerseys China, the Guyana Police Force would be better placed to make specialized interventions, thereby, ensuring law and order is maintained, and prospective threats are neutralized,” the Ministry said.The Ministry has engaged the services of ‘The Emergence Group’ (TEG), a Washington-based consultancy firm, to obtain the requisite assistance in this initiative.Members of the Guyana Police Force underwent training under the British for the setting up of a special anti-crime unit.The process will commence shortly with an ‘Organizational Needs Assessment’ to be done by experts from the consultancy firm. Curriculum development and training, including mentoring, will also be undertaken by the consultancy firm.According to the Ministry, establishment of a SWAT team has received the full support of the leadership of the Guyana Police Force.“There is absolute need for an elite police unit to go after the killers in our society, who are becoming bolder,” a former senior officer declared.The proposed SWAT unit comes a decade after former President Bharrat Jagdeo had ordered the establishment of a similar unit to tackle crime during the unforgettable crime wave of the early to mid 2000s.Then, a British team of trainers had trained close to 300 ranks from the Tactical Services Unit, using specially recommended firearm.However, the SWAT unit initiative was shelved by the then Police Commissioner Winston Felix.Most of those trained are either out of the Force or have been posted to other departments.Prior to that, the closest thing Guyana offered for a SWAT unit was the highly controversial but feared Target Special Squad (TSS).In their heyday, that unit was responsible for maintaining a lid on criminal activity by confronting criminals head on, in situations which sometimes resulted in near death experiences for some of the ranks.Of course the Target Special Squad with its leaders Steve Merai and the late Leon Fraser, were not above board, but according to the former senior officer who spoke to this newspaper, the Force should look to learn from the mistakes of the TSS.“Yes, they had to disband that unit, but what have they replaced it with? What we have now are motorcycle cops collecting money for traffic violations,” the former cop said.“Imagine in the days of Target, they only had two vehicles with ten men; now the police have about 15 vehicles and dozens of ranks patrolling the city and yet, they could not reach the scene in less than thirty minutes,” a local security expert told Kaieteur News.The establishment of the SWAT unit is expected to receive opposition support, given the posture they had adopted a decade ago.In 2003, at a hearing of the Disciplined Forces Commission, the People’s National Congress, through its Executive Member Basil Williams, had called for the immediate disbandment of the Target Special Squad (TSS) in the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and supported the establishment of a specially trained and equipped SWAT team.Williams, himself a lawyer, was at the time cross-examined by members of the DFC as well as Senior Counsel Bernard DeSantos and other-attorney-at- law Joseph Harmon, for the Police.The PNC/R Parliamentarian acknowledged that there is crime and dangerous criminals are in the country, and that units, similar to TSS exist in the United Kingdom and United States.He had stressed the need for them to be trained, with their overriding motive being to take prisoners and ultimately, good things “will kick in” and innocent unarmed persons will not be shot at or killed.Williams said that a SWAT team will not only be well trained but appropriately equipped and always have the advantage in dealing with criminals.He had proposed the formulation of rules of engagement for the recommended special squad and better remuneration, generally, for GPF members.However, in 2011 during the elections campaign, the now Opposition Leader David Granger had stated that the setting up of a SWAT team to aid Guyana’s crime fighting capability is not going to solve the seemingly out of control crime situation and drug trafficking.His comments were in reaction to the then PPP/C presidential candidate Donald Ramotar’s (now President) statements that the creation of a Special Weapons And Tactics team is needed to respond to the crime problem.Granger had said that he believes that more attention needs to be paid to Guyana’s border control systems.The need for a unit similar to the TSS was amplified last Sunday morning when the police were accused of poor response.Meanwhile the local security expert recalled that the present Commissioner of Police (ag) Leroy Brumell was censored for his “lack of leadership” as a divisional commander following the Lusignan massacre, and he suggested that Brumell should himself order a detailed investigation into the lack of proper response to Sunday morning’s shooting at a Kitty bar.“Kitty is an established police station, which has to be manned adequately; it is not an outpost. Who was the duty officer in charge? Why did it take so long for the police to reach the scene? All of these questions need to be asked and the public needs to know the answers. Are we safe? Can we go out at nights?” the security expert noted. |
