The Guyana Police Force (GPF) on Monday received $17 million worth of electronic equipment which will allow for statements to be typed, printed and stored on computers rather than being manually written.
“We have decided to move from that manual handwritten process to typed and computer generated and stored statements and it is in that initiative that we are partnering with the Guyana Police Force in attempting to provide as much resources as possible to enable the police to stop using the handwritten method of statement taking and to have statements typed, printed on computers and also stored,” Attorney General and Minis-ter of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall said.
According to the press release, Nandlall made the disclosure while delivering remarks at the handing over ceremony.
The items which include 38 computer systems, printers and scanners along with a number of air-conditioning units were handed over to Deputy Commissioner ‘Administration’ (ag), Calvin Brutus in the Commissioner’s Conference Room, Eve Leary.
The equipment was donated through the ‘Support for Criminal Justice Project’ which is funded by the Inter-American Development Bank. It will be distributed to the various court Superintendent Offices throughout the force.
According to the statement, Nandlall said that the equipment will play a major role in boosting the force’s prosecutorial and investigative arm. “A significant component of the project has to do with assisting and enhancing the capability of the Guyana Police Force, in particular, in its prosecutorial and investigative duties because those duties are intimately connected with the administration of criminal justice in the country,” the statement quoted Nandlall as saying.
The statement said Nandlall also highlighted that the equipment will aid the GPF in successful prosecution of criminal matters by reducing the sometimes inaccurate and hard to read handwritten statements.
“An important function of the police in terms of preparing for criminal trials is the taking of statements from potential witnesses and witnesses and these statements form the evidential basis that will unfold at these preliminary inquiries both at the high court and magistrate’s court in Guyana,” Nandlall said.
“Historically these statements have been handwritten and that by itself presents a problem of legibility – they can’t be easily read and then of course with the passage of time they become distorted and their ink sometimes fail …,” he added.
Meanwhile, the statement said that Brutus noted that the equipment will aid in the modernisation of the force. “This will go a long way in aiding us in that process of mordernising the Guyana Police Force, specifically the Court Superintendent Offices and the enquiries offices wherever these equipment are installed,” he said.
While acknowledging the challenges faced in the courts regarding handwritten statements and the quality of those statements, the statement said that Brutus explained, “this donation of computers and printers will aid our ranks to input these information into the computer system and to have statements prepared in the proper format and the required standard, to aid the court in prosecuting and delivering justice to victims and their families and it will also aid the Force in providing a better quality of service to our citizenry”.
