Community policing helping to build trust

GINA, GUYANA, Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Community Policing Groups (CPGs) are helping to foster healthy levels of community trust and strengthening cohesion.

In a recent interview with the Government Information Agency (GINA), Administrator of CPGs, Snr. Superintendent (Ret’d), Dennis Pompey said CPGs are helping to fight crime, address community and environmental issues.

Pompey explained that the CPGs offer assistance to the elderly and those in need. “It’s all a community service that’s building trust so that persons feel that they are comfortable with this type of service that we are offering to the community,” Pompey explained.

The GPGs work with young people in the community to keep them gainfully occupied by providing training especially in vocational areas. In addition, the CPGs held in clean-up activities in communities.  “We help persons to take care of the environment because taking care of the environment is a means of helping the community to keep crime away,” Pompey said.

Members of CPGs also benefit from training organised by the Ministry of Public Security and the Guyana Police Force to identify and deal with social ills including trafficking in persons, domestic violence and child abuse.

“We train them and get them to go and talk to these families who might have these problems so that they may be able to change their ways before it gets out of hand,” Pompey said.

CPGs were established in 1975 by the late Commissioner of Police, Henry Fraser to aid the Guyana Police Force (GPF) particularly in reducing minor or petty crimes. There are 228 groups across the country with more than 5,000 members.

By: Tiffny Rhodius