The Guyana Government is exploring the possibility of linking the Guyana Police Force’s (GPF) response system with that of private security firms in a bid to better tackle crime nationally.
This announcement was made today by President Dr Irfaan Ali at the opening of the annual Police Officers’ Conference underway at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC). He said Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn has been tasked with exploring the feasibility of this arrangement.
“In order to support the work of the Guyana Police Force, I also asked the Minister to examine how our response system could be linked to private security agencies because the private security agencies are increasing and currently, they have a lot of assets, so they will integrate our response system, so then you can also have response mechanism through private security that is also supported by the government,” President Ali reasoned.
This is not the first time an idea of this nature was touted. In August 2021, the Home Affairs Minister had disclosed that the government was contemplating the establishment of a system whereby private businesses can link their cameras to the surveillance system of the GPF.
“We are looking for a partnership where we would have private businesses put up cameras which would be linked into the Police Force system so that we can review, we can track and we can follow and can have a significant impact in relation to fighting crime in our country,” the Minister had explained.
Meanwhile, President Ali also spoke about the investments into the GPF, particularly in the area of technology.
“The government will be investing in the technological advancement of the Force. We’ll also be equipping them with the means both material and human to bring about drastic improvements to public safety. The government will also be investing in ensuring a system of rapid and resolute response to crime. Technology has the potential to be a game changer in policing. Over the past few years, we have seen how CCTV cameras have positively impacted our crime fighting strategy. The police have been able to utilise footage oftentimes from private businesses and homes to help detect crime and to identify those involved in criminal activities,” the Head of State reasoned.
“We have started this discussion with the Guyana Revenue Authority and on all our new highways, we are going to incorporate this feature where we can move towards digital ticketing and recognition, in terms of speeding, in terms of seatbelt violations and so on.
“And that system must be automatically linked to the suspension of licence and so on, so we now have to make the laws work, we have a lot of modern laws that is there, I would not say ineffective, but it is not giving us the results because the system is not in place to give us the results,” he added.
