Latest update June 25th, 2026 9:38 AM
Surveillance in modern day policing
Dear Editor,
You have outlined your concerns in respect to the police ability or inability to maintain surveillance on suspected criminals.
The intelligence might be available that a particular person might be involved in some sort of criminal activity.
The police will carry out the necessary investigation to ascertain whether the information is creditable if so they will start their surveillance bearing in mind that in order to make arrest the police must have sufficient evidence to get a conviction.
Furthermore, surveillance might take a very long time maybe years before you get the evidence you need to get a conviction. Within the region there are laws which restrict police from carrying out certain surveillance, for example wiretapping. I think in Guyana and maybe other countries within the region there are laws in place in respect to certain intelligence gathering through wire tapping.
The large number of deportees who are sent back it is practically impossible to maintain surveillance on them and to ask a deportee to report to a police station twice or three times a week is illegal since he/she have not committed no crime within the country. This is where modern day surveillance comes in and other investigative technique comes into play.
We must not put all the blame on our security forces it’s those in authority who have no clue about security that dictates policy decisions.
It’s a very expensive exercise to constantly carry out surveillance on suspects with the use of manpower, vehicles. The other forms of surveillance are also expensive for countries within the region.
We do not have the modern day surveillance equipment that developed countries have in their possession and many of our evidence are lost. We must also be aware that the criminals too have their own surveillance.
The police in the region operate well with their limited resources, although there are some crimes that are unsolved because of lack of certain technology.
Morris Springer
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