Technology-driven policing will be the future – Ali

…says facial recognition system to aid GPF in nabbing criminals

Investments in technology to enhance the monitoring and investigative capacity of the Guyana Police Force will be the future of policing in Guyana, President Dr Irfaan Ali has declared.

On Thursday, the Head of State announced during the annual Police Officers’ Conference that given the significant progress made through the use of surveillance, Government has taken an approach in allotting resources for the technological advancement of the Force.
He pointed to the $2.5 billion allocation that will be expended this year to expand and enhance the Safe City surveillance network beyond the confines of the capital city.
“Over the past few years, we have seen how CCTV cameras had a positive impact on our crime-fighting strategy. The Police have been able to utilise footage, often from private businesses and homes, to detect crimes and detect those involved in carrying out criminal activities. In order to boost crime-fighting, we have resuscitated expanded the ‘Safe City’ programme. This year, we have allocated $2.5 billion to expand the Safe City programme beyond the boundaries of Georgetown,” the President noted.
A few months ago, Ali had signalled intentions to connect the entire country through surveillance, an initiative which he reiterated. This will extend to face recognition and other advanced forensic tools to close cases.
“Our objective is to eventually connect the entire country with CCTV cameras and to have these centrally monitored. Information technology will be used to assist in our Police plans to help map crime, utilising analytics as a crime-fighting tool. Face recognition and vehicle licence plate technology will also be utilised to help intercept lawbreakers.”
Along with crime-fighting, the intention is to create safer roadways and communities in the country.
“Technology is also expected to be deployed on our roads. The reckless use of our roads must be brought to an end. We cannot continue to lose our precious human resources to preventable road accidents.”
The “Safe City” Project, which saw the installation of scores of cameras around Georgetown and the country’s main ports of entry, was launched in 2019. A multimillion-dollar Command Centre at Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown, was activated with the intent of monitoring criminals, suspects, and vehicles involved in crimes. Works on the project had begun before the official launching through the country’s National Broadband Strategy, with funding from the China Exim (Export-Import) Bank and implementation through the services of Huawei.
Back then, it was assured that the initiative would not violate human rights as the operations would be guided by the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) developed by a team of United Kingdom security experts.
Police Commissioner Nigel Hoppie on Thursday informed that for the year 2022 thus far, Guyana is reporting a decline by 16 per cent in serious crimes when compared to the corresponding period last year.
The year 2021 had also seen a successful reduction in serious crimes committed, standing at the lowest figure recorded over a 10-year period, with just over 1700 reported cases.