Surveillance cameras project to be extended to other regions – Benn

…as Road Safety Awareness Month launched

Road Safety Awareness Month was launched at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre located at Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara (ECD), on Sunday in a joint collaboration with the Guyana Police Force (GPF) Traffic Department, Home Affairs Ministry and the Public Works Ministry.

In an effort to curb the increasing carnage on Guyana’s roadways, the Police Force along with the Ministries have announced several plans afoot to boost road safety locally; one of which is to extend the “Safe City” project to other regions.
Even with more punitive measures being introduced by the Police Force to ensure drivers are attentive, and do not drive under the influence of alcohol on the roadways, some drivers have been defiant of the law.
Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn during his address at the launching ceremony, said that the project will now be a “safe country configuration” where the project will be extended to other regions to guarantee road safety countrywide.
“Additional cameras will be established in other towns and other highway areas and there will be subordinate regional places too where there will also be people watching, where we will put in number plate recognition and other issues in respect of stolen vehicles…”, he explained.
In relation to other issues of infractions on the roadway, the Home Affairs Minister said that the system will be able to “remotely tag” persons to those infractions.
“Those are some of the interventions we are undertaking. Person are still being trained and some hiring is still being done, but the critical initial training is being undertaken and that is one of the principal interventions we are working on at the moment,” Minister Benn said.
The Minister in his address also made mention of cases that are failing in the local courts because of Police equipment, especially speed guns that are malfunctioning. He added that there needs to be a paradigm shift in such situations, and it should be addressed soon.
“…there is the infamous case of former national cyclist who was killed on the road and the case failed because it was said that our speed gun was not collaborating… I want to remind the Police and others that there is still in the laws and perhaps in the standing orders other ways of doing field sobriety test.”
“We don’t have to necessarily to wait to take a blood sample or check the collaboration itself of an instrument…”, the Minister added.
In July 2019 the Safe City Project saw the installation of cameras around Georgetown and the country’s main ports of entry.
It is said that the cameras were set up in public spaces and are “of extremely high quality”.
The centre, which is being controlled near the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, has been dubbed the National Emergency and Response Command Centre.
The command centre is a part of the country’s broadband strategy and is in keeping with a smart city direction that will prompt efficient public security services in Guyana. (G9)