A United States-funded $200M programme will heighten the use of video evidence in crime solving and the government here is upbeat about its likely impact.
The three-year Strengthening of the Criminal Justice System programme was yesterday lauded by Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan.
“This generation of training is very important because …it is preparation for a better security and a better protection in years to come and that augurs very, very well for the people of Guyana,” he said of the grant aid project.
He was speaking at the unveiling of the project, which is funded by the US State Department through the ongoing Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI).
“The main objective of this programme will be to increase effective criminal investigation in Guyana that leads to strong prosecutions and trials by boosting the technical capacity of the police, prosecutors and magistrates to work with criminal evidence in a supportive environment,” US Ambassador to Guyana Perry Holloway told the launch at the US Embassy in Georgetown.
Project Manager Evelyn Neaman, whose non-governmental organisation the Justice Education Society (JES), based in Vancouver, Canada, was selected to execute the programme, said that it will not just focus on training but will approach the justice system development holistically, in a multi-phase process. It will include catering to Guyana’s unique needs through the training of persons, some of whom will also themselves become the trainers, providing equipment as well as ongoing coaching, monitoring and evaluation, as it also helps build the capacity of justice systems.
“The JES programme brings a national scope to the work in progress and aims to build capacity within the criminal justice system in a comprehensive manner and provide training to the majority of police officers, prosecutors, police prosecutors and magistrates and high court judges across the entire country,” she said.
Neaman hopes that by the end of the project, geared to develop capacity in crime scene management and investigation and forensic video evidence, the country will be the leader in the Caribbean in forensic video analysis.
“Surveillance evidence, also known as forensic video evidence, is one of the fastest growing areas of forensic evidence in the world. From convenience stores, to banks and traffic intersections, CCTV cameras are virtually everywhere. This project will continue to increase the capacity of specialised forensic video analysis units in both the Guyana Police Force and the National Forensic Science Laboratory through training and or equipment. These units will be able to analyze this evidence so that it can be admitted into evidence in court” she said.
In January this year, Canada donated $3M worth of items, including video analysis equipment, to the Guyana Police Force.
A statement from the police had said that the equipment included crime scene kits, six Canon cameras and an Ocean System hardware and software system. It was part of Canada’s assistance to the same project being implemented by JES.
‘Improved prosecutions’
Guyana’s Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Shalimar Ali-Hack yesterday said that she eagerly anticipates the programme rollout as she is confident that it will not only yield more successful prosecutions but just sentencing.
“I am confident it will improve the level of investigations.
Our prosecutions, in many instances, are as good as the level of the investigations, so it is hoped with the training of the investigators and prosecutors, as well as the courts, that we will improve investigations that will lead to improved prosecutions and that the decisions in sentences will be just, in keeping with the offence which was committed,” Ali-Hack told Stabroek News.
Holloway said that his embassy has been working alongside the Attorney General, Ministry of Legal Affairs and the Director of Public Prosecutions to strengthen Guyana’s justice system.
He said that it was during those engagements that they recognised that each component agency has an independent and constitutional role and function and that outcomes are enhanced when each agency understands the work of the other and has confidence that best practices are being utilised when carrying out those responsibilities.
Further, Holloway pointed out that during a three-year period, 2012 to 2014, agencies of the United States government, including the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), completed a series of assessment reports which identified challenges existing in the justice system here, “extending from police investigative procedures through the criminal prosecution process.”
‘Confident’
It was the improvement of skills that Ramjattan was upbeat about. “This aspect of the training will, I understand, have efforts implemented here to standardise law enforcement by the public agencies and enhance skills and knowledge of prosecutors. Adding capacity also, for making better statements, of course, in their investigations, taking better statements and, of course, trained right up to the practices that we lawyers know as examination and chief …so that they can give stronger evidence in court, so that, thereafter, the magistrates or the judges and the jurors can ensure convictions.
There is also training, I understand, for magistrates so that we can have the whole process taken into consideration here,” he asserted.
He said that he was very impressed, being Minister of Public Security, about the strengthening of procedures of evidence gathering for the police, since that area has been a sore point for the Guyana Police Force, as there have been numerous allegations of abuse in their gathering of evidence from persons, especially alleged criminals .
“Of course the civil rights training [is] because we have come across what has happened recently in certain instances, allegations of police taking some rather uncouth steps in getting evidence and, you know, appreciation of the civil rights during the course of interrogation/ investigations is so important,” he said.
The project also includes engaging with the private and public sectors and media by collecting and sharing success stories and impacts that are documented throughout its life.
