Ties that bind: The challenges of policing/ community relations in Guyana

The relationship between the police and the community they are meant to serve and protect has often been fraught with tensions fueled by suspicions on both sides of the divide. The community fear and resent the police, on the one hand; the police are frequently guilty of belligerence and seem to willingly succumb to monetary and other forms of bribe, on the other. These tensions are further exacerbated by class and ethnic tensions in Guyana. This paper offers up some remedial steps to ameliorate these potentially explosive tensions.