- Turns sod for new, modern US$28m 12-storey Brickdam Police Station
Georgetown, Guyana—(January 08, 2024) His Excellency President Dr Irfaan Ali said that his Government is developing a world-class security architecture that will focus on proactive and intelligent policing to create a culture of peace and prosperity in Guyana.
The Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces made the statement during the sod-turning ceremony for the new 12-storey Brickdam Police Station earlier today.
The President underscored that the modern US$28m facility is an integral part of his Government’s plan to develop a national security apparatus.
He explained that “The national security architecture is not just to reduce crime or to look at all the stats on serious crime, simple larceny and all of these things that are on the decline, but the security architecture is to develop a culture of safe living in the country; and that is what is proactive policing and intelligent policing”.
Proactive policing, he emphasised, should encompass community development and community interaction.
“Sometimes we are of the mistaken view that security is about running behind two criminals, stopping the man who is speeding; but a more important task is teaching the person not to speed, it is building a system that disallows the person from speeding, it is about how we train the mind and train the thinking process of our citizens to avoid crime, and that is one of the key components of this security architecture that we are building.”
The President underscored that his Government is developing the security architecture focusing on digitisation, automation, infrastructure, service and people.
“At the centre of all that we are doing is digitisation and automation. Because we want to remove the human bias in our security architecture. So everything will be done through traceability. The entire system will be on a digital platform that is fully automated where people will be held accountable by a system.”
In developing the national security architecture to promote peace and prosperity, President Ali also underscored that his Government is working on a holistic plan to improve the capabilities of the other joint services including the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), the Guyana Prison Service (GPS), the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) and the Customs Anti Narcotic Unit (CANU).
The Head of State pointed out that his Government is also in the process of acquiring state-of-the-art marine assets to support the work of the GPF.
“Outside of this, we are building an air capacity and capability for the Guyana Police Force that will be integrated with the Guyana Defence Force, because we’re going to move a lot of our air capacity and capability to the new hanger at Ogle that the Guyana Defence Force is constructing and rehabilitating right now.”
This, the President said, will further enhance the Force’s crime-fighting capabilities and help to create an integrated joint service.
“In the fire service, we are building our capability and capacity enhancing our infrastructure, building our human resource capacity and of course, we are now going to implement the system of accountability, because we are not satisfied that we are getting the full value for the investments we are making in the Guyana Fire Service (GFS).”
The President explained that the GFS capacity is going to be built not only with new fire tenders and more technologically advanced pieces of equipment but also through a robust education plan that will involve schools, the private sector and other important stakeholders.
President Ali also announced that his Government will build the firefighting capacity of every Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) across the country with mobile firefighting units and will train volunteer community fire brigades.
He said that the Guyana Prison Service “is also seeing severe modernisation in terms of technological capability, the training of its human resources, the building out of new infrastructure and the enhancement of its asset base”.
In addition, the President added that the sod will soon turn for the new headquarters of the Customs Anti Narcotics Unit (CANU).
“We are building at CANU, a regional integrated system that will allow CANU not only to function effectively out of the city, but to function in every single region with the same efficiency, the same capability and the same ability to proactively work against those who try to destroy our society with drugs.”
He said that the Government is also building the capacity of CANU “to integrate with other regional structures in the Caribbean, in Latin America and of course, with our partners in the Western Hemisphere”.
The new Brickdam Police Station has a completion date of 30 months.
The building will feature an earthquake-resistant structure and other modern features including firefighting and advanced CCTV monitoring systems, and will house more than 2,000 persons.
Minister of Home Affairs, the Honourable Robeson Benn; Commissioner of Police (ag), Mr Clifton Hicken and other Government officials and heads of the joint services were also at the sod-turning event.
