| – says unable to reach Top Cop while filing complaint Many administrations often do their best to refute those who criticise the way they choose to run their agencies and this country. A favoured excuse is that these critics do not understand the intricacies of the things that they criticise.But who better to highlight the inadequacies of the Guyana Police Force than a former Commissioner of Police, and one of the best detectives that the Guyana Police Force has ever produced.Mr. Henry Fraser, third Commissioner of Police in Guyana spoke to Kaieteur News about an experience that he recently had with the Police Force. Mr. Fraser took the time to point out that in all of the events set out below he never sought any personal favours but was just another citizen who needed the assistance of “his Police Force”.His grievance arose in part from a series of events that saw a matter that could have been finished by a sergeant at the station level within four days-using one man to investigate it to completion-making it all the way to the DPP “for advice”.Mr. Fraser owns a property management firm that administers the homes of Guyanese living abroad.His clients put up their properties for rent to persons and agencies here in Guyana. These tenants are duly screened before a property is rented to them to ensure that there will be as few problems as necessary.The matter starts with a tenant who is in the employ of the American Embassy. According to Mr. Fraser, the man took possession of the property some five years ago. Last year the gentleman indicated that he was building his own home and would have vacated the premises by November. Mr. Fraser said that when the appointed time came for the inspection of property, the tenant began to stall. However, on December 2, his company finally succeeded in carrying out the inspection.According to Mr. Fraser, his employee who normally inspects the properties went to the residence and during the course of his inspection found a pump missing. Mr. Fraser said that he then reported the matter to the Kitty Police Station where he spoke to an Assistant Superintendent named Fowler. He indicated that the Assistant Superintendent contacted a Sergeant at the Campbellville Outpost who dispatched a Constable to investigate the matter.When Mr. Fraser contacted the police at Kitty he had indicated that he was going to make the witnesses available so that they could take all the statements at the same time. It was at this point that Mr. Fraser discovered that, “the fellow who came to investigate the matter had no idea what to ask or what to write.” The Constable proceeded to take Mr. Fraser’s statement but did not request all of the information before he asked for a signature. At this point Mr. Fraser himself, being an ex detective had to point out the additional information that was necessary and subsequently supplied it.The next statement that the Constable took was from the employee who undertook the inspection after which he said that he had enough information and was going to return to the station. Mr. Fraser however had arranged to have one more witness present and told the constable that the person would arrive shortly. The constable left saying that he was “going to grab a bite” and he did not return at the arranged time. Instead he turned up a few hours later with the tenant and the missing pump.At this point Mr. Fraser had to tell the constable that he should have taken the man and the pump to the station and not to his residence. Shortly thereafter, Asst. Superintendent Fowler contacted Mr. Fraser to relate the tenant’s explanation, at which point Mr. Fraser said that he had already reported the matter and would like to see it take its due course.This occurred on December 3, 2010. After that, Mr. Fraser said that every time he called for an update on the matter he was either told that it was incomplete or had not been looked at. The report made its way from the Asst. Superintendent at Kitty to her supervising officer. When Mr. Fraser contacted this gentleman he was told that the matter had been referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions. Up to the time of this report,Throwback Jerseys, an incredulous Mr. Fraser has been unsuccessfully seeking to contact the Commander of A-Division Mr. Vyphuis in relation to the matter which he said was just a simple one.Deeply distressed by these events and what is being said about the state of the Guyana Police Force, the Former Commissioner decided that he needed to speak to someone who could perhaps address these matters. He attempted to get in touch with the Commissioner of Police, Henry Greene. According to Mr. Fraser, the first time he called the Commissioner’s Office, he was very particular about what he had to say. He said that he identified himself and indicated that he had “some information” for the Commissioner but he was told that Greene was in a meeting and would call him back. That call never came. He attempted to reach Greene once again two weeks ago and was told, “If you hang up and call back this same number you will get the Commissioner.”Mr. Fraser said that he could not understand why if he was on to the Commissioner’s number at the Commissioner’s Office he needed to hang up and call right back. At this point he said that he gave up in frustration.Mr. Fraser said that he was not trying to become involved in any sort of public controversy but he felt that it was his civic duty to speak out when he saw something wrong, especially with his beloved Police Force. As such he called it a duty to express his feelings about the negligence, wrongdoing and incompetence that he sees in the Force today.Mr. Fraser notes that citizens need to make every effort to maintain law and order which in turn goes a long way to the development of the kind of country that we all look forward to. However, this cannot be done, he goes on to say, if the country cannot maintain law and order. And this is where the Police Force comes in to play.Officers should not be referring simple cases such as his to the DPP. He said that in his experience the case amounted to nothing more than Simple Larceny. He also spoke of the disdain with which Senior Officials treated the people, pointing out that if you turn away a citizen with information, “you lose a customer”. You lose what may have become a friend of the police who may be able to render some unknown assistance to the Force in the future. He also said that any Commissioner of Police who does not respond to a person seeking to give him information, even moreso a person of repute is not fit to be a Commissioner.Mr. Fraser went on to point out however that his criticism is not a blanket meant to cover the entire force. He went on to say that there are those members of the force who are a credit to the body, persons who can be called nothing but good police officers, while there are others who have forgotten that the position is one that calls for integrity and honesty, and do everything with personal gain as their only motivation. |
