The Public Security Ministry in collaboration with the Guyana Police Force (GPF) on Friday morning commissioned the new state of the art 911 Emergency System at the Brickdam Police Station in Georgetown.
The new system will be taken to 52 other locations within the country to promote better police responses while enhancing crime-fighting efforts.
Additionlly, some 46 officers of the Guyana Police Force have been trained to operate the new system which has been commissioned to respond to calls from citizens across Guyana, with the objective being prompt police response.
Furthermore, citizens can now send text messages to 911 instead of calling and the operators can render assistance using that platform.
The system is being reintroduced, with the assistance of local telephone companies GTT and Digicel, after several years of non-operation.
Acting Police Commissioner, David Ramnarine, during the commissioning ceremony, dubbed the instillation of the new service as monumental, while highlighting that the ranks who have been trained to handle the system should put that training to use and uplift the dwindling image of the Force.
“ Our physical infrastructure is improving at a very rapid pace [but] sadly, our attitudinal behavior towards our work, towards colleagues, towards members of the public, there’s a huge gap and so I can only urge those of who will be engaged in ensuring that the 911 emergency system…that it will be something meaningful, something useful, not something mirroring the challenges of the past,” he said.
Meanwhile, Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan asserted that it was a huge development and should not be downplayed in any aspect while expressing his gratitude to GTT and Digicel for their technical support and collaboration on the project.
The Minister also announced that in order to ensure that the Police have the necessary response tools, Government will soon handover a series of pickups, buses and all-terrain vehicles to the GPF, which was donated by the Government of China.
“Don’t feel…that because we gon get a 911 we are going to be then, stifled because we don’t have the resources to back it up. Yes, we are going to get the resources now because we will be deploying those [vehicles]…Majority will be in Division A because as you know, Division A is where more than 50 per cent of the serious crimes are committed daily,” he posited.
Ramjattan further assured that a holistic approach was taken towards ensuring that the new 911 emergency system is not a repeat of the poor service that was provided in the past.
