Successive national budgets allocated approximately $467 billion to public safety and security between 2020 and 2026, Home Affairs Minister Oneidge Walrond told the INTERPOL Americas Regional Conference in Georgetown on Wednesday.

She said $100 billion was budgeted for the security sector this year, including support for the Guyana Police Force. The spending, she said, was intended to strengthen police facilities, mobility, training, investigative work, border security, communications and technology.

Walrond presented the figures while arguing that Guyana needed a security system capable of responding to the risks accompanying economic growth and increased international connections.

“Today, security can no longer be understood simply as responding to crime after it occurs,” she said. Protecting people, borders, institutions and critical infrastructure also required anticipating new threats, she told the conference held at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre.

The minister said Guyana was moving towards an integrated system in which the police, Immigration Department, Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit and other agencies would share information and coordinate their work more closely. She called for greater use of INTERPOL’s databases, notices and secure I-24/7 communications network, along with stronger border screening and joint investigations.

“Investment at home must be matched by cooperation abroad,” she said.

Walrond listed narcotics and firearms trafficking, trafficking in persons, migrant smuggling, cybercrime, financial crime and money laundering among the threats facing Guyana and its neighbours. Criminal groups exploited legitimate transport and trade, financial systems, digital platforms and differences between national laws, she said.

“When information moves quickly and partners act together, criminals have fewer places to hide,” she told delegates.

Police Commissioner Clifton Hicken also described international cooperation as an operational necessity for Guyana. Its land borders, Atlantic coast, forests and river network supported trade and regional links but also created openings for trafficking, illegal mining and other cross-border crimes, he said.

Hicken told the conference that INTERPOL’s National Central Bureau in Georgetown exchanged thousands of requests, alerts and notifications annually with counterparts abroad. He said the exchanges assisted investigations involving wanted persons, stolen travel documents, firearms and vehicles. 

Walrond urged delegates to judge the conference by practical changes after they returned home: whether intelligence moved faster, border systems were better connected and officers knew their counterparts in other jurisdictions. The success of the meeting, she said, would not be measured simply by the number of discussions held.