Hicken announces plans to rotate cops with GPF to achieve more efficiency

Commissioner of Police Clifton Hicken on Monday announced plans to rotate officers within the Guyana Police Force (GPF) in an effort to achieve more efficiency in the work of the organisation.

He made the announcement during the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Annual Christmas Luncheon and Awards Ceremony.

Referring to the GPF’s new state-of-the-art training academy at Dora, Soesdyke/Linden Highway which is scheduled for completion in 2025, the Top Cop said a wide variety of programmes are currently being developed to build capacity among the detectives and other officers of the GPF.

“As young police men and women coming up, we’re not going to confined you forever to one area. In the college, we’re drafting programmes at the levels of Diploma and Degree and beyond that. At the Constable level…right up to Assistant Commissioner will be trained,” Hicken said.

Once all officers are trained, he said: “we’re no longer gonna have a gap between traffic rank, a detective or general duty police. All of you are gonna know equally. And so, we’re gonna create an atmosphere where we can rotate the Force, creating efficiency and then we will pull out what we need to achieve the objective of the organisation.”

The Commissioner told the officers gathered at the event that they will also be relocated to other regions as the Force prepares not only for its routine duties in the new year but for the upcoming General and Regional Elections.

According to the Police Commissioner, “why we’re using rotation because it’s an avenue used to build capacity in an organisation… The regions you’re in, you might not be in that region [next year].”

Speaking directly to the CID, Hicken assured that while officers will be rotated, they will not be transferred from the Department. “Nobody owns the CID and so we’re not gonna transfer you,” he assured.

However, he appealed to the ranks to give of their best wherever they will be deployed in the new year.