Closed circuit television cameras will likely be installed at points across the city by July/August, Cabinet Secretary, Dr. Roger Luncheon announced this morning.
“The rollout, I would hazard a guess here…and I would say July/August 2011,” Luncheon said during his post-cabinet media briefing.
“The Headquarters of the National Intelligence Centre has been handed over and the connections, the tower and the transmission from the cameras…the plan has been put into effect for the linking to the monitoring stations that would be established at the Headquarter building,” he added.
Luncheon said that the CCTV cameras will cover “the entirety of ingress and egress from Georgetown, the major thoroughfares within the city and those places that are either of economic interest like banks and gas stations and such like and definitely where Guyanese congregate, the transportation areas like the car parks and bus parks and such like.” He said that the anticipation is that it will have a significant impact. CCTV cameras have been spoken about by administration officials for some time now.
Luncheon was responding to a question on the crime situation at the time and he said that a number of interventions had been made including more reliance on intelligence driven operations. “The feeling has always been that the more intelligence driven operations become the standard platform, the greater the impact, the greater the effect would be from our law enforcement interventions”, he said. Luncheon stressed that resources are being provided and the cultivation of public confidence in law enforcement agencies is of prime importance.
The Cabinet Secretary also pointed out that the presence of better trained and better equipped police and law enforcement agents on the road and in the communities is another important intervention. He also noted the role of the Community Policing Group.
Meanwhile, he also said that ill Commissioner of Police, Henry Greene retains the confidence of the administration. “I want to feel… all things being equal that there is no dissatisfaction that’s profound enough for an interruption of his tenure but as I said I would hesitate to pronounce on the future,” he said.
