911 system “still a work in progress”- Police

While Government awaits the rolling out of an effective 911 emergency system, the police seem to have found a way to ensure that calls coming into the system are recorded, and acted on.

The Government of Guyana, Police Force and Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company have all came in for harsh criticisms over the years, for the malfunctioning and ineffective 911 emergency system.

On Tuesday, Top Cop, Seelall Persaud could not say at what stage the process of fixing the problem stood, but assured that it is being addressed.

He said, “at the moment, there is a recording system so when calls come in, they are being recorded, and we have audits being done on how they’re responded to.”

The Top cop was at the time responding to questions from the media following a passing out parade for new recruits to the Guyana Police Force at Eve Leary earlier this week.

GT&T and the Police Force have long played the blame game as it relates to the non-working system. Several citizens have complained about their calls to the system going unanswered or being met with an engagement tone.

In March of this year, Minister of State, Joseph Harmon announced that a contract for $28M was awarded to Digicel to get the 911 systems up and working.

Since that announcement, there has not been an update from Digicel on the works done. We were told by sources at Digicel today (Wednesday, June 14, 2017) that senior operatives of the company who can provide an informative update on the system are out of the country.