President Irfaan Ali on Tuesday announced that the modern highway from Mandela Avenue, Georgetown to Diamond, East Bank Demerara will be equipped with “technological features” including speeding cameras to aid in policing.
“The new highway from Mandela to Eccles and then onto Diamond, there is certain technological features that will be incorporated in that infrastructure that will help policing…. Speeding cameras that will not only be telling us speed but will be showing us who is wearing seatbelts and who are not wearing seatbelts,” Ali said.
He was at the time speaking at the annual Guyana Police Force (GPF) Christmas Breakfast which was held at the Officer’s Mess, Eve Leary.
According to Ali, the speeding cameras will provide the police with advance information including details of the vehicles. “……You will be able to type in a particular vehicle number and type that you are looking for and the system through the cameras will give you detection,” he said.
The initiative is likely to be expanded countrywide, Ali said.
Outlining Government’s plans to support the force in executing its duties, Ali said resources have been set aside in the supplementary budget which was tabled in the National Assembly earlier this week to provide the force with 50 additional vehicles.
In addition, he said the engines of about 30 of the existing vehicles that are currently out of operation will be replaced.
“Because we want to give you the tools to be successful. When you are successful all of us are safer and all of us can celebrate a bit harder. Success is the name of the game and I must say that I am very appreciative of the positive response that we have gotten from the force. I must say that I am very appreciative of the type of commitment that I have gotten,” Ali said.
He further stated that the Government is working on a plan which will see the waterways being utilized as the country’s first line of defence from a security perspective.
“Utilizing the great assets of our rivers and conservancy to effectively and efficiently manage crime from front and at the back and we are going to invest in the assets to allow us to do this,” he said.
He also said that that they are looking to establish a national drone programme. Already, Ali said drones have been deployed in the city as part of the force’s crime-fighting strategy.
The new highway which is currently under construction is expected to significantly cut commute time for residents and modernise the surrounding areas.
According to Ali, the lawmen possess attitudes and value systems that are patriotic and nationalistic. “….We have to be bold in our decision making. We have to take a strategic look at our organisational structure or operational structure and come up with the best-suited model for a modern Guyana. That is why you are seeing legislative changes,” he said
During his address at the Guyana Tourism Awards Gala last week, Ali had announced that government has started testing an electronic speed monitoring system that is likely to replace the use of speed guns by the police.
“We are testing right now an electronic speed monitoring system….We starting from the new highway,” he said.
The new system, Ali said, will register the speed of vehicles traversing the roadways along with details of the vehicles such as its registration numbers and brand.
He added that once the system is implemented, speeding tickets will be sent directly to motorists’ homes and the court.
About a month prior to this, Ali had announced plans to expand the “Safe City” surveillance programme saying it has yielded results in fighting crime.
In July, 2019, the Huawei-built Safe City Command Centre for the “Safe City” CCTV surveillance system was unveiled under the former David Granger-led APNU+AFC administration.
The Safe City system is made up of 102 Intelligent Video Surveillance sites, each consisting of three to four cameras, the command centre, which will have the capacity for about 25 agents, two systems that can be mounted on vehicles, as well as three different types of radios and body cameras. Several months after, an additional 17 cameras were installed across the country at crucial locations, such as the Stabroek Market, the Berbice River Bridge and the Lusignan prison.
The cameras are equipped with several features, such as video monitoring systems that aid in the deployment and tracking of law enforcement officers, remote tracking, a facial tracking system, a real time facial recognition and a licence plate location history search system.
