Government is boosting the Close Circuit Television (CCTV) high technology security camera system to support crime prevention efforts by the Joint Services by adding 17 camera locations including more in the highly congested Stabroek Market area, at the Berbice River Bridge and the Lusignan Prisons on the lower East Coast among other areas.
The 17 new locations will bring the total number to 119 so far, a release today from the NDMA said.
Major (rtd) Floyd Levi, Head of the National Data Management Authority (NDMA) said this week that the programme is being expanded under the Safe City Solutions project being carried out in collaboration with the Chinese Government.
Huawei Technologies, the release said, is leading efforts with the NDMA to execute the US$37.6 million project that would add a crucial electronic surveillance component to help police fight crime. The NDMA comes under the Ministry of Public Telecommunications.
Levi disclosed that new CCTV systems are being installed at the Berbice River Bridge in Region Five and another at the Palmyra Junction on the lower Corentyne. Additional sites being covered are the Mahaicony Bridge, Skeldon Market on the Upper Corentyne, Fort Wellington near the Government complex housing the Police station, the magistrate’s courts and the Regional Democratic Council (RDC’s) office in the area, Enmore-Haslington on the East Coast, Melanie Damishana’s main junction, the Parika area, Anna Regina on the Essequibo Coast as well as Charity on the Pomeroon River, Soesdyke Junction, one at the entrance to North Ruimveldt and Aubrey Barker Road and an additional system at the Stabroek Market area near Water Street.
“These camera systems are nothing new to Guyana. We have had them for more than 10 years or so,” said Levi, noting that all 119 systems will all have omni- directional cameras, allowing monitors to pan a large area, manoeuvre the camera to obtain a better view and also to zoom in to get close ups of activities ongoing.
“So if the police detect something or want to look around, they have 360 degrees of visual freedom to check out on any given subject”, he said, according to the release.
The NDMA head noted that from all indications, the project will have no cost overruns and will come in under the original budget.
A downside however, is the cost attached to the project to repair protective barriers around camera pylons as motorists have already crashed into a few, the release said.
Critics of this programme have said that the government has not explained what the cameras have actually been used for thus far, where the feed is directed, who are the monitors and what safeguards are in place to prevent the misuse of footage. The public is in the dark about whether the cameras are used on a daily basis to help prosecute traffic and criminal cases. No examples have been provided as to where camera footage has been instrumental in identifying suspects and has been used as evidence in court.