LEARNING FROM BOSTON

Apr 20, 2013 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Guyana had its own tragedy recently when a small aircraft crashed into a house in the village of Plaisance. And the American State of Boston was the scene this past week when bombs exploded at the famous Boston Marathon, killing three persons and injuring scores.
While the nature of both tragedies was different, there are important lessons that Guyana can learn from how the Americans went about dealing with the bomb attacks.
For one, there was at the Boston Marathon an immediate response by the officials and security personnel on hand. They moved in early to offer assistance to those injured but more importantly having done so with great efficiency, they also immediately cordoned off the areas where the bombs went off, so as to preserve the integrity of the crime scene.
In Guyana, after the plane crashed there were citizens walking all over the crash site. In fact, the debris of the crash was being trampled upon and scores of citizens were freely accessing the crash site.
Guyana has to have an improved emergency response not just for plane crashes but also for accidents, fires and other emergencies. There should be emergency and rescue services in each area and there should be drills to prepare these services for action if and when they are required to go into action.
One of the immediate things that should happen, is that the ambulance and rescue services should descend on the scene to assist those injured.
Concurrently cords should be thrown up around the scene so as to prevent the many citizens who like to run to these scenes.
We have the distinction in Guyana of being one of the few places in the world where people hear gunshots and actually run to the direction of the gunshots. We have had situations where women take their children and put them in between fleeing bandits and the pursuing police.
The police are too small and its resources are too limited to effectively engage in emergency services and this is where a local brigade can be formed in each of the designated areas to take charge of this situation. These persons can be volunteers.
They can include the community policing groups and NDCs and they can be trained in dealing with emergency responses. They can be supported by the local military which has some capability in dealing with this sort of thing.
It is no use having an army in peacetime and not putting that army to work. The army can play an important role in emergency situations. For example if there is a crisis such as the one we have a few months ago when the Harbour Bridge was down for two days. Immediately, a emergency response should kick in for which the participants would have been drilled and prepared.
The second lesson that we can learn from the response of the Boston marathon is the importance of the use of CCTV cameras. It was these cameras rather than human intelligence that allowed for the    suspects that the FBI is now pursuing to be identified.
The cameras that captured the images of the suspects were used by a business enterprise and they were high resolution cameras. They caught the images of the men and these were enhanced to allow for pictures to be made public.
In Guyana, we have to do the same and this responsibility is as much that of citizens and the private sector as it is of the government. There should be pilots for security cameras.  A good place to begin is the Stabroek Market area which is often teeming with pickpockets, choke and robbers and all kinds of characters just waiting to pounce on innocent passersby.
There are criminals who also hang out there and who prey on the hire car drivers, hiring them and robbing these hardworking individuals at other locations.
If there were cameras erected all around that area, it would easier for the police to identify some of the characters who perpetuate and hang around this area. The Stabroek Market area is therefore a useful place to launch security cameras. Eventually the entire commercial district can become an extended surveillance area so that even if a cockroach moves, it will be caught on camera.
This is an initiative that the private sector should pursue. It has benefits for their members because with more camera surveillance, people will feel more secure to go into commercial areas and this will be good for business.
It is important that whenever a tragedy occurs even if it is through misadventure or accidental that attempts are made to ask certain basic questions, such as what could have been done to prevent this from happening; what could have been done to reduce the loss of life, injury or destruction to property; and what could been if something like this occurs in the future?.
Unless this is done, we will not be prepared for future disasters.

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